The Price of Vengeance
by YFate
Summary: SesshouMaru wishes to avenge the insults he has received at the hands of his hanyou brother...but is he ready for the price of that vengeance? FINALLY UPDATED! Chapter 65: Menacing Shadows
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
Prologue (Weakness)  
  
"Why did my father's fang go to that half-breed, my younger brother?" SesshouMaru stared unseeingly out at the stunning vista before him, blind to the natural beauty that surrounded his castle. The Western Lands, his father's domain and his own inheritance, stretched before him as far as he could see, and yet he did not see, for his mind was elsewhere.  
  
"Wha-What did you say, me lord?" Jaken, the three-clawed imp who followed him around like a scurrying rat, gasped as he scrabbled up the last of the stairs up to the Western Tower. The climb was a long one, and it was not often that the Lord of the Western Lands made his way up to the Tower. Only when his mind was troubled with some problem that he wanted to think on and sort through possibilities. The last time Lord SesshouMaru had mounted the steps to stare off unseeing into the land before him, he had been looking for his father's sword, Tetsusaiga. The same sword that had forsaken him for his puny half-brother, the hanyou InuYasha.  
  
Silence greeted Jaken's question, and Jaken leaned wearily on his staff, wiping his sweating brow with the edge of his brown sleeve. He paused a moment before asking tentatively, "Master?"  
  
"What is it, Jaken?" SesshouMaru showed more forbearance than normal, the unemotional quality of his voice sending chills down the imp's spine.  
  
"I hate to disturb your venerable presence, me lord, but there is a matter grave enough that it needs your particular attention, Master." Jaken slavered, bowing awkwardly, the Staff of Skulls swinging wildly.  
  
"What is it, Jaken?" The Lord's patience was wearing thin-the only hint was the slighter emphasis on the second word, and a slight narrowing of his golden eyes.  
  
"Forgive me, Master! I am but the messenger!" Jaken said, prostrating himself, the Staff falling to the hard stone floor with a clatter.  
  
"Jaken." The Lord said simply.  
  
"Y-Yess, Master?" Jaken squeaked from the vicinity at his feet.  
  
"Speak." The word was sent, sharp as a whip, and Jaken recoiled into a huddled ball on the floor.  
  
"Yes, me lord! Forgive me, me lord!" At a low, barely heard growl, Jaken cowered backwards toward the escaping stairs, but spoke hastily. "There is a disturbance, me lord! At the edge of your lands! The demons there are restless, me lord! You have been gone for so long! And word of your illness has spread---"  
  
"My illness?" SesshouMaru whipped around, glaring at the cowering imp.  
  
"Y-Yess, me lord! Word has gone out about the loss of your arm, me lord, to that disgusting half-breed InuYasha."  
  
The growl rumbled loudly in the echoing stone Tower, but SesshouMaru's voice was as calm and cold as ever. "I told you never to speak that name."  
  
"Y-Yess, me lord! Forgive me, Master!" Belying the law of physics, Jaken managed to prostrate himself even more on the floor. The Lord stared at the terrified imp for a few moments before he settled for simply kicking his groveling servant down the stairs. A loud series of squawks and shrieks echoed up all four-hundred-and-thirty of the Tower's spiraling stairs amid the clatter of Staff and imp falling down every one of those steps. Chilly silence followed the abrupt departure, but SesshouMaru had already turned away to look out on his lands and holdings once again.  
  
*So. They think to challenge me.* He contemplated the forests that stretched below him before curling his remaining hand into a fist. A breeze came up, pulling at his long, silver hair and the end of his tail. The flap of his left, empty sleeve in the wind seemed to laugh mockingly at him, and SesshouMaru contemplatively pulled open his kimono, looking dispassionately at the newly healed stump where his left arm used to be. Thankfully, he still had the shoulder and part of the upper arm. Although his own arm was lost forever, thanks to the mechanizations of his hanyou brother, he could still use the arm of another. His powers as a full youkai granted him the ability to do so. He already had an arm in mind that he could put to that particular use.  
  
He smoothed down his robe once more and spread his remaining hand, studying it as a slight green glow began to emerge from between his claws. He watched dispassionately as his silver-white claws grew longer as the light glow condensed into a darker green-yellow mist. No one had challenged him in a long time. Ever since the defeat of his enemies when he had claimed the Western Lands as his inheritance upon his father's terrible death over seventy years ago, no one had dared. He had kept a tight reign over his lands, and enforced his laws quickly and ruthlessly, killing all who defied him. It was simply the way.  
  
Now his enemies thought they might be able to prey on a weakness. Defeat at his half-bastard brother's hands was a bitter draught to swallow. InuYasha would pay for his insult in time. But for now, he had to deal with the annoyances on his border. He would make their defeat slow and painful, letting all know by the pain and humiliation and torture of a few, that he was still Taiyoukai of the West. And then they would die.  
  
Molten eyes stared into the vast forests below him, a slight smile curving his lips. 


	2. Chapter One: At the Well

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
Chapter One (At the Well)  
  
***Much Later***  
  
"KAGOME! KAH-GOH-MAY!"  
  
The raven-haired girl winced as the call grew louder in volume and demand. Hurriedly putting down her bowl of oden, she rose from her sitting position at the table. Her mother looked up, concerned, from the kitchen, where she was stirring the pot. "Is it time for you to leave already, Kagome?"  
  
"Yes, Mom. InuYasha's going to wake up the entire house if I don't leave right now." Her words were punctuated with the slam of the door to the dining room sliding open and the yellow-eyed glare of her hanyou companion.  
  
"Kagome! Aren't you ready yet? We've been waiting on you for hours!" InuYasha growled.  
  
"Oh, my! Why, hello, InuYasha." Kagome's mom wiped her hands on her apron and came into the dining room.  
  
InuYasha had the grace to look disgruntled. He never knew how to take Kagome's mother. She was as strange as her daughter, accepting him the way she did. In fact, it amazed him (whenever he bothered to think about it) how easily Kagome's whole family had accepted him. He sometimes wondered if this whole era was full of such accepting people or if their acceptance came from their long family history as guardians of the shrine.  
  
"Would you like something to eat before you go?" Kagome's mom made a motion toward the steaming stove.  
  
"Uh, no. Thank you." InuYasha sniffed delicately, the aroma was tantalizing, but they were already running short on time. He added the grudging politeness out of respect for Kagome's mother. Kagome gave him a wide-eyed look at the courteous remark, and he smirked at her.  
  
"C'mon, Kagome. We haven't got all night." He growled at her, hands crossed in front, ears laid back with annoyance.  
  
"Right." Kagome snatched up her bulging yellow backpack, mentally wincing at it's weight. It seemed to get heavier every time she went back to the Warring States era. She-and her mother-kept thinking of more things to take with her, things she might or might not need in the wilderness of medieval Japan.  
  
She hastily hugged her mom, who shook her head indulgently at InuYasha's impatience, and accepted a motherly peck on her cheek. "Be careful, Kagome." Her mother admonished, her eyes faintly shining with moisture in the lamplight. Kagome swept past InuYasha, who turned to follow, but was stopped by a small, careworn hand on his red sleeve.  
  
"InuYasha." Kagome's mother looked sweetly up at him. InuYasha gentled his customary growl; he had a special respect for mothers.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Take care of her. Protect my little girl." The soft brown eyes, so much like Kagome's, were teary. "I...I'm worried about her this time. I don't know, but I have a fear that I won't see my little girl again." She exemplified softly, almost to herself.  
  
Kagome stuck her dark head back in the door, impatient. "Oh, come on, Mom! I'm gonna be all right! InuYasha will protect me!" She disappeared, and InuYasha was jerked from the mother's hand by the daughter's none-too- gentle yank on his other sleeve. "C'mon, InuYasha!" Floated through the doorway as InuYasha gave a helpless look at Mrs. Higurashi. The older woman was trying to give him a brave smile, but the tears in her eyes were growing.  
  
"I'll protect Kagome. I promise." InuYasha said brusquely, before turning away to follow Kagome into the dark, early morning night. He joined her in the wellhouse, sliding the doors closed. Kagome already half-sat, half-knelt on the wooden rim of the dry Bone-Eater's Well.  
  
"You could have been nicer to your mother." InuYasha growled as he stomped down the wooden steps.  
  
"Whatever. Come on. You were the one who was so anxious to get back." Kagome sprang into the well. InuYasha scowled at the empty well before launching himself in after her. He hated it when she had the last word!  
  
***  
  
A small kit was waiting for them in the clearing as they emerged from the well. Kagome had waited for InuYasha to appear before her in the bottom of the well. Why climb when she could get a ride? As soon as he came through, crouching, she scrambled up on his back, tucking her legs around his waist and clutching his shoulders. "Hmph." InuYasha grunted at her weight. "What the hell are you carrying?" He groused as he sprung up from the bottom of the well, allowing his powerful legs to spring up and out of the well. His hair, silvery white, and hers, so dark it was bluish in the faint moonlight, blended together in the wind that followed their downward descent.  
  
Taking the impact on his knees, he landed softly. Kagome scrambled off his back and opened her arms to the orange fireball that sped towards her. "Kagome!" Came the joyous, welcoming shout as Shippo hurtled into her arms, the impact of his arrival knocking her down on her butt with its impetus.  
  
"Hey!" InuYasha glared at the kitsune cub. "Watch what you're doing!"  
  
Kagome laughed as Shippo hugged her tightly. "I've missed you so much, Kagome! There's no one to play with when you're gone! InuYasha was so grumpy while you were away. I don't understand why, but he always is. Please tell me you're not going to go away again for a long time."  
  
"Little brat." InuYasha growled at him. Shippo stuck his tongue out at the hanyou, feeling brave in Kagome's protective lap. InuYasha glared, one fist pointedly curling.  
  
"Aah! Kagome! InuYasha's going to hit me!" Shippo shouted accusingly as he snuggled into Kagome's shirt.  
  
"Stop being such a child, InuYasha." Kagome glared back at the dog- eared hanyou, motherly outrage etched in every line of her as she cuddled the kit.  
  
"What? Me! A child!" InuYasha shouted, protesting.  
  
"It seems as if our friends have come back." Miroko mused as he stepped from under the shadowed trees that rung the clearing. Behind him, Sango's mouth curved into an amused smile as she surveyed the scene by the well. Kirara, following her mistress, mewed and rubbed her legs, purring.  
  
Suddenly, the neko-youkai stilled in mid rub, her oversized, red eyes glowing faintly as her head turned sharply to the right. A low growl came from the two-tailed cat as her eyes brightened.  
  
"What is it, Kirara?" Sango asked with concern, looking at the cat.  
  
InuYasha's sharp senses picked up the neko's low growl. He held up a hand as Kagome drew a deep breath in protest at his sudden stillness. He sniffed delicately, then stiffened.  
  
"Kagome! Duck!" He shouted as he hurtled himself at the sitting girl, smashing her and the fox cub in her lap to the ground beneath him as a flame-laden wind swooshed right over where their heads had been but a moment before. A second wind, flames snapping and crackling with heat and purpose, followed the first in deadly intent. 


	3. Chapter Two: Fire!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
Chapter Two (Ash-Demon)  
  
"Dammit!" InuYasha growled into her ear as he huddled protectively over Kagome, the flaming wind brushing over them. The protective fabric of his Fire Rat robe protected the girl and kitsune from the fire, but he couldn't leave them to find out what was making the fiery winds as the flaming gouts came again and again, bathing them in heat. The dry wood of the well caught quickly, and the shadowed trees that rung the clearing were starting to smoke and smoulder.  
  
"Where is it coming from?" Came Miroku's shout as he ducked behind a tree, the rings of his protective staff tingling faintly with his sudden movement. He pulled Sango with him, ignoring her startled squeak of outrage. Kirara snarled in defiance as she changed into her larger form. Sango swept from behind the tree to jump on her back as the neko youkai, her own red-orange flames spurting from her feet, launched into the air.  
  
"Hey!" Miroku shouted, waving a fist at their disappearing forms, before he ducked back behind his tree at another flaming wind was aimed at him this time. The tree caught with a groan, and the bushes on either side were swept away in a gout of flames. The houshi scrambled from behind the flaming tree, running further into the forest. "I have to find out where the flames are coming from!"  
  
"Damnit, anyway!" InuYasha raised his head, ears cocked, as the flames flashed away from them and toward the monk. He grabbed Kagome with one clawed hand, not noticing how the flimsy cloth of her shirt ripped at the shoulder under his piercing claws, scratching her tender skin. Her startled gasp was lost as he vaulted into the air, dragging her with him. They narrowly avoided another gout of flame as InuYasha sprung into the air.  
  
Kagome held the cowering kitsune cub in her arms for dear life as her feet dangled in the air, inches above the spurting flames. InuYasha's grip on her shoulder tightened, causing her to squeak at the pain as he landed into a neighboring tree. Dropping her on the swaying branch, the hanyou turned his attention away from the grumbling girl and back to the clearing. "Where is it? Where the hell is it?"  
  
Disgruntled, Kagome inched back toward the bow of the tree, wincing as the harsh bark scratched her bare legs. Really! Once in a while she should really wear some jeans. She was tired of her school uniforms getting torn up in these stupid battles!  
  
InuYasha had pulled the Tetsusaiga free of its sheath, and the broken, rusted sword flamed to life in white fire. "Do you sense any Jewel shards, Kagome?"  
  
Kagome gathered her wits. Patting the huddling, shaking kitsune in her arms, she stood up on the swaying branch, extending her senses. She scanned the clearing, even as she watched Sango flying in the air on Kirara's back, holding her Hiraikotsu up behind her, trying to find the origin of the flames. Kirara neatly sidestepped a flaming blast aimed at them, and roared defiance.  
  
Kagome focused on where the flames were originating. Narrowing her eyes, she felt a sudden twinge, as if something was pulling on the harp- strings of her very soul. The sharply fuchsia glow of a malevolent Shikon shard twinkled at her from the darkness of the trees on the east side of clearing. "There!" She screamed at InuYasha, pointing past him toward the brush.  
  
A sharp, metallic scent filled InuYasha's sensitive nose as the girl's arm pointed past him. He turned sharply at the heady scent of the girl's blood and saw the rent in her shirt from his claws. Blood welled sullenly from the slight gashes at her shoulder, a few drops streaking the fabric and falling slowly to the ground far below. "Kagome! You're hurt!"  
  
"InuYasha! Duck!" Kagome hurled herself into his arms, ducking under him as InuYasha instinctively huddled over her, his red robes swirling over the girl and fox cub as another gust of fire flamed over them. The tree over them caught and crackled.  
  
"Dammit!" InuYasha sprang free from the tree as the flame subsided, hauling Kagome behind him by her heavy, yellow backpack this time. Another flame passed just behind them. "Sango!" He yelled. "Aim at the eastern end! The big tree over there!" He hollered as he jumped further into the forest.  
  
Sango's defiant yell filled the air as she released the Hiraikotsu toward the trees. InuYasha found another convenient tree to dump Kagome in, further from the battle scene. He released her from the air, knowing she would land safely (if not comfortably) in the tree's leafy upper branches. Turning in midair, he faced the eastern side of the forest, growling, his amber eyes narrowed and sparking with their own yellow flames.  
  
"Where are you! Come out and show yourself!" He shouted as he ran over the treetops to the clearing.  
  
Sango's Hiraikotsu swept the eastern trees, cracking limbs and raining leaves and brush to the forest floor below. The giant weapon spun back toward her, where Sango braced for the impact of its return.  
  
An eerie howl rent the air of the clearing as a shadowed form came from behind the trees. InuYasha growled as his opponent finally emerged. Black and grey, the color of ashes, swirled over the humanoid form. Faintly pink eyes bulged from the sides of the overly long, narrow head. Red flames danced in the eyes as they narrowed on the hanyou flying at him. An unearthly scream of rage rang through the clearing, causing InuYasha's ears to flatten in pain at the frequency. The wide mouth, fanged like a shark's, opened beneath mere slits for a nose. Fire, red and glowing, came from its mouth, shooting straight at InuYasha.  
  
InuYasha quickly sidestepped the blast, the air flapping the sleeves of his kimono, and held Tetsusaiga in a two-handed grip. "You! Ugly! Get ready to die!"  
  
***  
  
Miroku danced backward out of the flaming forest, and back into the clearing. Realizing where he was, with no concealment or protection, the monk quickly ran back into another part of the woods. Not one to sit on go, especially where personal safety was concerned, he kept hidden behind the trees, coughing as the thick grey clouds of smoke from the burning forest pooled around him. He heard Kirara snarl and InuYasha's yell as they finally located the source of the flaming wind. Speeding back into the clearing, ducking past flaming brush, he saw the horrific Ash-demon roar. Falling over from the loud frequency that rung in his ears, he barely missed being fried by the youkai's next sweep of flame.  
  
He looked up from a face full of dirt and leaf-matter to see InuYasha's two-handed downward swing at the Ash-demon. The youkai dodged to the side with lightening fast reflexes, his eerie howl ringing the clearing as InuYasha growled, landing heavily on his feet and spinning around to confront the demon with bared fangs.  
  
"Come on over here and fight, you damn pile of burnt offerings!" InuYasha taunted at the youkai. The Ash-demon grinned with double rows of sharp teeth and sent a second blast of fire at the hanyou.  
  
"InuYasha!" Sango cried out from somewhere above them as the hanyou was wreathed in flames. She held up Hiraikotsu, ready to swing. "Take that, Fire-Eater!" She sent the boomerang spinning toward the Ash-demon, who roared back with his ear-ringing cry, making Kirara snarl with flattened ears as she danced back away on fiery feet from his follow-up blast of flames.  
  
Miroku stood. "It's time for my Wind-Tunnel!" He shouted as he cleared the trees and stood defiantly behind the youkai. He sensed the malevolent force of a Jewel shard coming from the demon. He thrust his staff into the earth, the rings swinging and chiming defiance as he prepared to unwrap his powerful right hand.  
  
Hiraikotsu distracted the Ash-demon. Roaring, he jumped away from the boomerang, but couldn't avoid the backswing as it spun behind him and came back on its own spin. Hitting the side of the youkai, who roared flames in pain, the weapon went straight back to its mistress's waiting hand.  
  
InuYasha, wreathed in the youkai's fire, had held up the protective sleeves of his Fire Rat robe to ward off the flames. A taunting laugh came from the flaming hanyou as he waved Tetsusaiga's white fang, dissipating the creeping flames with one stroke. The Ash-demon's eyes widened, even as InuYasha leapt from the ground, Tetsusaiga beginning its deadly arc toward the youkai.  
  
The youkai belched fire once more as the hanyou leapt over him and brought the white fire of Tetsusaiga down on its ash-colored head. Flames licked up InuYasha's arms as the fang split the Ash-demon in two from shoulder to groin. Fire leapt from the disintegrating demon as it howled in pain and hatred. InuYasha reversed his leap, and landed away from the fiery death, on the other side of the smouldering forest.  
  
The youkai became a ball of fiery fury as its body convulsed in its own flames. "It's going to explode!" Sango warned from above as Kirara reared back, away from the spinning ball of fire.  
  
"InuYasha! Stand clear!" Miroku shouted at the hanyou as he unwrapped the prayer beads from around his right hand. He could take care of the flaming youkai once and for all. "Wind Tunnel!" He shouted as he unleashed the powerful black winds of the void in his hand.  
  
Flames licked higher as the winds tore through the clearing. Burnt grass, ash, rocks and dirt were pulled in by the void. The flaming body of the youkai hurtled toward the braced monk. The winds encircled the flaming ball and drew it in as the houshi braced for the impact. A searing line of fire met his palm as the Ash-demon's body was swallowed by the hole in the houshi's hand. Miroku kept his hand unwrapped for another moment, waiting for the void to reject the Jewel shard the demon had carried in its body. Winds swirled over the clearing, fanning the flaming residue on tree and brush even as the small dark fuchsia shard emerged from the void and spun into the clearing.  
  
Seeing the distinctive light leaving him, Miroku wrapped the prayer beads around his hand, abruptly cutting off the swirling black winds. Momentary silence followed the howling of the winds, before a dull roaring filled the clearing, and the sharp cracking of burning timber sent sparks into the neighboring trees.  
  
Fanned by the winds of Miroku's hand, the smouldering brush of the forest surrounding the clearing, set by the Ash-demon's fiery blasts, caught and flared into roaring life. Miroku's startled blue eyes swept the brightening flames as smoke swirled around him and choked him.  
  
"Dammit, Miroku!" InuYasha yelled as he leapt away from the roaring flames that swept toward him.  
  
"Kirara! Hurry!" Sango urged the neko-youkai as she saw flames encircle Miroku's position. The cat roared acquiesce, and sped toward the monk. Leaning over the neko's back, Sango held out her hand as they descended toward him. Miroku yanked his staff out of the ground and jumped at the girl's outstretched hand, clutching it for all he was worth as Kirara sprang free of the flames.  
  
"INUYASHA!" A terrified cry came from the surrounding woods, as flames encircled the clearing and the trees behind.  
  
"Kagome!" InuYasha howled as he jumped from his perch on an as-yet- unburning tree. Sheathing the Tetsusaiga in mid-air, he stretched his senses, his sensitive nose twitching at the smell of burning forest around him, trying to seek the scent of the girl he had sworn to protect. Heated wind swirled his silver-white hair behind him as he scanned the roaring forest.  
  
Her scent came faintly on the hot breeze a moment before he spied her in the top-most branches of the tree he had dropped her in. The kitsune cub was clinging to her shoulder, yelling and waving for the hanyou's attention. Smoke swirled around the terrified pair as flames licked up the darkened tree base.  
  
"Kagome!" InuYasha yelled, trying to get her attention.  
  
"InuYasha! Hurry!" Kagome shrieked as flames shot up the tree with deadly purpose.  
  
"Jump, Kagome!" The hanyou shouted. Big brown eyes gave him a fearful look as the girl braced herself on the swaying branches. Clutching the terrified fox cub in her arms, she launched herself into the air just as sparks caught in her backpack, skirt and hair. InuYasha stretched out his hands, claws extended, as he grabbed the girl by her shoulders and hugged her to him, sweeping her away from the flaming forest. Her cry of pain was lost in the roar of the fire as it burned the forest to ash behind them. 


	4. Chapter Three: Suggestion

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
Chapter Three (Suggestion)  
  
Lord SesshouMaru walked steadily through the dark forests on the borders of his lands, idly scanning the undergrowth for potential threat. He did not fear any real threat, he was too powerful to worry over the small mechanisms of smaller youkai and ningen. He did patrol his lands routinely, however, making certain that his vassals knew, simply by his presence, that he was always aware of them.  
  
He was alone for this journey. He had made his small charge Rin stay back at the castle, under Jaken's supervision. Not that Jaken was any good at supervising the small, impetuous human girl. It was faintly amusing how the little ningen ran circles around the exasperated imp. Her devotion to the Taiyoukai of the Western Lands was touching, though he did not worry over his own feelings toward his adopted girl.  
  
His subjects had been aghast at his keeping of the ningen brat, but the Lord never cared what his vassals thought. As long as they served him, he did as he pleased. And it pleased him to keep the young girl. She was amusing.  
  
For now.  
  
A faint scent came to him on the light breeze. Lord SesshouMaru's golden eyes narrowed as he easily identified the familiar scent.  
  
*Naraku.*  
  
With lightening quick reflexes, he twisted to the side and cleared the brush. He stared down at the kneeling white baboon with the red-tinged eyes.  
  
"Naraku. You wish for your own death appearing on my lands." The Taiyoukai sniffed delicately, and froze minutely. No. It wasn't Naraku, but a puppet. SesshouMaru's coldly arrogant face stayed serenely blank, but his lips twisted faintly with a sneer.  
  
"So. You fear to meet me directly, then."  
  
"It is but a small precaution, my lord SesshouMaru." The puppet bowed, for every sound and appearance the demon-raised hanyou.  
  
"You are tedious. Why are you here?" The Taiyoukai stood unpreturbed, as still as stone.  
  
"I have a notion for you, my lord." The puppet said, amusement clouding his cold voice.  
  
"I have no care for you notions, hanyou. You are annoying me with your presence, and that is a dangerous path you tread, vermin." Lord SesshouMaru replied coldly.  
  
A husky chuckle came from the white baboon. "Ah, but we have a common enemy. We both seek to hurt the half-breed InuYasha. And I told you at our last meeting that I would enlist your aid again sometime in that pursuit."  
  
The Lord's eyes narrowed, the only sign of his impatience. "You were lucky you escaped that time, hanyou."  
  
The puppet Naraku held up a thinly clawed hand for patience. "I understand how much you hate your brother. I harbor similar sentiment, my lord."  
  
"Your sentiment is no concern of mine. InuYasha is easily disposed of." Came the cold reply.  
  
"Is that so? He has seemed to escape you quite a few times, Taiyoukai." The baboon taunted.  
  
A faint yellow-green glow between the claws of the inu youkai's right hand was the puppet Naraku's only answer. The baboon stepped back into the brush, putting a pacifying hand up.  
  
"Wait, Lord. You act rashly in killing a mere puppet. I have a suggestion that would be to our mutual benefit."  
  
"You are a fool, hanyou. You will die for your insult." The Lord growled faintly as his eyes tinged red.  
  
"I know of a way you can hurt InuYasha, hurting him more than if you just killed him." The baboon hastily said as the poisonous glow brightened in the Taiyoukai's hand. "You can humiliate him more than he humiliated you by taking the Tetsusaiga."  
  
The poisonous whip cracked through the air, splitting the white robes of the baboon in two and chopping off the head as the whip snapped back. The white leering head rolled over the ground to rest facing SesshouMaru. A green glow suffused the eyes momentarily. "Maim the hanyou in the heart, as he maimed you in the arm." Naraku's voice taunted the Taiyoukai. "Take the young girl who keeps him company, and you will humiliate him worse than he humiliated you."  
  
The whip cracked through the air again, shattering the head into pieces.  
  
***  
  
The small kitsune cub crept into the darkened interior of Lady Kaede's hut on the edge of the village. Faint red light came from the banked fire, making the kit shiver as he remembered how close the fire of the flaming forest had come. His tail was singed, as was one paw, and he was covered in black smears of ash. He wasn't aware of his own small pains, only worried about his dear friend, Kagome.  
  
Kagome had protected him in the tree, shielding him from the dancing sparks and reaching flames as the trees burned around them. Even as InuYasha had rescued her from the burning tree, more sparks had caught in her clothes and hair. As soon as InuYasha had cleared the burning forest, he had put them out by beating at them with his Fire Rat robe, but the girl had already passed out from the pain.  
  
Shippo remembered InuYasha's despairing howl when he couldn't immediately revive Kagome. He had clutched the girl in his arms, not knowing if she lived. Blood had soaked through the rips in her shirt, mixing with the smoldering ash and soot that covered her too-white skin. Blood that had come from his own claws as he gripped her shoulders in her desperate jump to safety from the burning tree.  
  
It had been Sango who pulled InuYasha away long enough for Miroku to check the girl's faint breathing. Kagome had whimpered in pain, and her eyes had fluttered open momentarily. "InuYasha..." She had murmured softly before falling back into blessed darkness.  
  
InuYasha's fanged grin of happiness had not been what Lady Kaede had been expecting when she saw the hanyou carrying the hurt girl from the smouldering woods. She had been out and about, directing the men of the village with picks and shovels to try and make a fire break between the fields of the village and the roaring fires as InuYasha's forest burned. Looking askance at the devil's smile on InuYasha's face, she had quickly directed the hanyou to take the girl into her hut. Shippo had scampered in after them, not wanting to leave his Kagome for a moment. But the Lady Kaede had started taking off the burnt and shredded remains of Kagome's shirt, and sent the two worried males back out with a sharp look.  
  
Sango had gone to help Lady Kaede, but had emerged some time later with burn salve to help tend the minor injuries of the others. Shippo had refused to sit still long enough for her to check his own singed fur. He didn't care. He was only worried for his Kagome.  
  
"K-Kagome?" He whispered hoarsely as he crept into the hut. Lady Kaede, who had been sitting with her eye closed against the wall, looked up sharply.  
  
"Shippo." She said softly as the fox cub crept to her side.  
  
"Lady Kaede. Is K-Kagome going to be all right?" Shippo asked desperately as the priestess put a comforting, gnarled hand on his head.  
  
"Aye, child. Kagome will be fine. She is just resting right now. Ye must be quiet and not disturb her."  
  
"May I see her?" Shippo asked in a strained whisper, anxious to see that his Kagome was all right for himself. He could barely make out the faint form of the girl as she lay at the far end of the hut, covered by a shielding blanket.  
  
"Only for a moment, and ye must not wake her." Cradling the kitsune cub, Lady Kaede stood up stiffly. Her old bones were getting tired, and it had been a long night. On soft, silent feet she approached the still form of the girl and knelt, setting Shippo down at her side. Shippo stretched out a paw, tenatively, before sitting big-eyed at the resting girl's side.  
  
*He loves her like a child its mother.* Lady Kaede thought to herself, watching the small fox cub out of the corner of her one good eye. *But then, what else is to be expected? The poor child lost his family so young, and Kagome has been mothering him for the past three years now. But there may be heartache in this. When Kagome returns to her own time once and for all, she will not be able to keep the little kitsune with her. There is some cause for concern.*  
  
Kagome was laying unnaturally still. Usually she curled up on her side, with one hand on her pillow, and Shippo snuggled close to her. Now she lay on her back, the only sound her faint breaths in and out as she slept. Those faint sounds reassured Shippo immensely. His Kagome was going to be fine! Relief washed over him, and the tired cub fell asleep watching his beloved friend, leaning against Lady Kaede's lap.  
  
Smiling tenderly at the small kit, Lady Kaede scooped his limp body up and deposited it on the blankets beside Kagome. The cub would not disturb the girl now that he was sleeping soundly, and both of them would be reassured by the other's presence.  
  
"Sleep ye well, children." The old miko whispered as she turned away to her own sleeping mat.  
  
***  
  
The first rays of the sun emerging on the horizon woke InuYasha from his exhausted sleep in the crook of a tree. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he scanned the horizon. He could see both the village and the forests they called his from the tree, that was why he preferred it to any other that lay close to the village. Idly tightening his hold on the Tetsusaiga, which he cradled in his sleep like a child, he stretched his senses out to the waking world around him.  
  
The smell of burnt, wet ash filled the air, overwhelming most of the other scents around him. Faint smoke, inky black and foul, still hung over the remains of his forest. The villagers had successfully combatted the fire by clearing shrub and dousing it with water from the nearby paddies. They had somehow managed to build a channel from the waterways to the fireline. With a ready supply of water available, the raging fire had been extinguished.  
  
Feeling responsible, Miroku had dragged InuYasha after him to help the villagers fight the fire. They had only stopped when Sango had come to treat the few burns they had both received combating first the Ash-demon and then the resulting forest fire. InuYasha felt as achy as an old woman, his muscles overstretched and sore.  
  
*And if I feel this bad, I can imagine just what the others are feeling. Frail humans.* InuYasha thought idly as he blinked against the flooding sunlight as it broke over the green forest and over the blackened remains in the center. That very frailty was one of the things InuYasha wanted to avoid at all costs, hence his desire to become all demon. *Then nobody could mess with me, not even that creep, SesshouMaru.*  
  
Why was he thinking about his stupid brother right now, anyway? Something nagged at him, something about that particular youkai they had fought and killed last night. Not one for long thought or intense speculation, InuYasha let the worry go. More moved by action, he finally stirred and stood up on the swaying branch, his clawed toes holding him steady. Stretching, he felt the warmth of the sun reviving his tired muscles.  
  
*Much better. Being a demon beats being a human, any day. Even if I am only a half-demon.* Strapping the Tetsusaiga to his side, the hanyou sprang down from the tree.  
  
Time to go find that Jewel shard. 


	5. Chapter Four: Square One

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
Chapter Four (Square One)  
  
"I have found you a pretty flower!" Rin called out as she came skipping into the Lord's library. Her pretty face was wreathed in a smile, showing her gap-toothed affection for the Taiyoukai who had restored her life.  
  
SesshouMaru glanced up at his rambunctious charge, patiently waiting for his whining servant to follow the girl into the room. Jaken did not disappoint him.  
  
"Unruly girl! Stupid ningen! Don't you dare disturb me lord's study! Where have you gotten too, you little stinking turnip?" The exasperated, green imp scrabbled into the library. His yellow eyes bulged as he spied the inu youkai sitting calmly at his desk, open scrolls before him.  
  
"M-Me lord! I did not realize! I apologize for this wretched girl's untimely intrusion!" The imp squealed, prostrating himself on the floor.  
  
"Enough, Jaken." SesshouMaru silenced the frantic imp. He turned his golden eyes to his grinning charge.  
  
"SesshouMaru-sama! I have found you a pretty, pretty flower!" Rin held up her prize, a squashed white rose with faint touches of red striping the center. She had found the newest bud, and while much the worse for wear, it was indeed one of the prettier varieties found in the Lord's gardens. Not that he ever gave much thought to what grew on his grounds.  
  
Rin deposited the pitiful bud in the Taiyoukai's lap, wincing as a thorn pricked her finger. Promptly sticking her finger in her mouth, she said succinctly, "Ow."  
  
"Jaken." SesshouMaru raised a single brow.  
  
"Y-Yess, Master?" Jaken raised himself up off the floor, using the convenient Staff of Skulls as a prop, and gave the Lord a hopeful look.  
  
"Take care of the wound on Rin's hand, and see that she is given dinner."  
  
The girl giggled at Jaken's dropped jaw expression, and then skipped out of the room. "Good night, SesshouMaru-sama!" She called gaily back from the hall. Jaken jerked as she disappeared, bowed under the Taiyoukai's cold stare, and darted after her.  
  
Sharp of hearing, the Lord could hear Jaken's grumbling as he scrambled down the hall after the little girl. "Jaken do this and Jaken do that! I am but a glorified babysitter to that disgusting human girl! I don't know why I deserve this after I have toiled for me lord for so many years. Is this the reward I get after so many..." His harsh whispers disappeared down the hall, and the Lord chose to ignore his servant's mumbling protests. Jaken might not be the best caretaker for the child, but he was intensely loyal to his Lord. And Rin liked him, surprisingly.  
  
Many of the things about the girl-child surprised him. She was fearless, and followed him wherever he let her. Her unquestioned loyalty and adoration were touching, and the cold Taiyoukai had begun to feel responsible for the girl and her well-being.  
  
"Curious." SesshouMaru turned the new idea over in his mind, and then dismissed it. He had other things to think about.  
  
Like tracing that other girl, his half-bastard brother's woman. He could not recall her name, had never really cared. It had been weeks since his meeting in the forest with Naraku's puppet, but the dark hanyou's suggestion had actually begun to turn in his mind.  
  
At first, he had dismissed the petty thoughts of an upstart hanyou as beneath him. But Naraku was nothing if not crafty. SesshouMaru had a grudging respect for the dark hanyou's audacity and skill at turning the pitiful emotions of lesser youkai and ningen against themselves. His elaborate schemes on behalf of the Jewel shards he collected could be considered works of art. The Lord could appreciate a well-laid and thoughtful plan of action.  
  
Not that the fumbling baboon's plans had always worked in his favor. Naraku loved his petty schemes too well, and many of them had backfired. His toying with separate ningen had actually paired the ones he had sought to destroy together with ties of hatred and vengeance.  
  
*Foolish monkey.*  
  
Still, the baboon still had a few good ideas. With the emergence of InuYasha's skill with the Tetsusaiga, and his ability to see the Wind Scar and use the awesome blade's full power to slay a hundred demons with a single stroke, the Taiyoukai knew that defeating his half-breed brother would be very difficult.  
  
Even mastering the Tenseiga, SesshouMaru's own sword of healing, would not cancel out the Tetsusaiga's brute strength. InuYasha could not kill the Taiyoukai, as the Tenseiga would bring him back to life, but the Lord could not come close to InuYasha, who could now unleash the full potential of the Tetsusaiga, keeping the Lord at bay. Even if Tenseiga could keep his life, his first encounter with the fang's full power had been painful, and his recovery had not been swift.  
  
And Lord SesshouMaru was one who could learn from his mistakes.  
  
Now, if he could not hurt his bastard brother physically (though that remained to be seen, ways could always be found), he could at least hurt his younger half-brother in pride. InuYasha was an emotional hanyou---it was one of the many things SesshouMaru despised him for. The bastard had gotten that particular flaw from his human mother, a worthless ningen who had ruined SesshouMaru's exalted father, hurrying his untimely and ignoble demise.  
  
The hanyou would pay for that.  
  
***  
  
"Kagome! You're awake!" Shippo's joy-filled cry broke the morning stillness. Kagome blinked at the spot of light pouring through the opened window, and gave the little kitsune a faint smile.  
  
"Yes, Shippo. I'm up." She said, wincing as she tried to move. She felt like one big ball of aches and pains. Lady Kaede's herbs were potent, but few of them had any pain-killing qualities. "Ugh."  
  
"Oh, Kagome. Do you hurt?" Shippo asked, concern all over his cute face.  
  
Kagome gave him a better try at a smile, so he wouldn't worry for her. "I'm fine, Shippo. I just need some aspirin."  
  
Shippo jumped up, eager to help his Kagome. "Ass-purr-rin? Is it in your yellow bag? I'll get it!" As the fox cub jumped toward the corner of the hut and pushed her heavy, soot-stained bag toward her, Kagome sat up and groaned mentally. Studying her hands and arms, she realized they were covered in thick linen bandages. Lady Kaede's work.  
  
"What happened, Shippo?" She asked as the cub struggled over with her bag. She stared at the bag in some shock. The bag was scorched and blackened, covered in small holes where sparks from the forest fire had caught in it. She carefully opened the damaged buckle and started pulling her supplies out, making a pile of damaged and salvageable items.  
  
"InuYasha saved us, remember? But you were burned, and passed out. Lady Kaede healed you, and I know InuYasha and Miroku went to help the villagers put out the fire." Shippo sat back, full of chatter now that his Kagome was fine. "InuYasha was so worried, Kagome. You scared him. And me, too. You wouldn't wake up. InuYasha thought you were dead, and, boy, did he howl! You should have heard him, Kagome. But Sango got him to let you go, and Miroku knew you were still breathing. So he--InuYasha, I mean, not Miroku--brought you to Lady Kaede, and now you're all better!"  
  
"I will be as soon as I can find my aspirin." Kagome replied, finally locating the bottle. Her hands were stiff and hurting when she flexed the muscles under Kaede's bandages. Glaring at the bottle, she finally popped the lid off, and white pills showered over her, the blanket, and the floor.  
  
Ever helpful, Shippo started picking the white pills up. "Is this candy, Kagome? Can I have some?" He opened his mouth.  
  
"No!" Kagome shouted, and then winced as her temples pounded. "No, Shippo! It's medicine, not candy. And I don't know what they'll do to a youkai."  
  
"Oh." Shippo looked abashed, and handed over his small pile. "You could have said something sooner, Kagome. I won't touch the ass-pur-rin again, if it makes you so angry. But..." A small paw circled the floor, as Shippo looked down shyly. "You wouldn't happen to have some of that candy from your home, would you?"  
  
"Oh, Shippo!" Kagome giggled. She pulled a mostly-melted chocolate bar from the 'damaged' pile. "It melted in the fire, but it's chocolate. I brought it for you."  
  
"Really?" Shippo snatched the offering from her hand. A whiz at untangling candy wrappers, he had the melted goo in his mouth in seconds, licking the wrapper and rolling his eyes with pure joy.  
  
Kagome shook her head, and finished picking up the scattered pills from her blanket and robe. A full jug was beside her, and she eased a couple of the aspirin down with some tepid water from it. She began to feel better almost immediately. Better enough to want to get out of Kaede's hut. The small hut was a nice haven at night, but during the day it felt dark and stifling.  
  
She wondered where her school uniform was. Lady Kaede must have undressed her and put her in the faded robe she now wore. Most of her own clothes from her backpack had burn holes in them, but she did have one whole dress left, with only one small hole at the hem. It had been buried in all the others. She could also salvage at least two pairs of underwear and one bra, though she'd be happy to get back home and get some more clothing. How she was going to explain her loss of clothing to her nervous mother without letting her know what had really happened was going to take some creative thinking.  
  
She could use some of Lady Kaede's extra clothes, but Kagome didn't want to a repeat performance when InuYasha saw her in the miko robes. The last thing she ever wanted to remind him of was his old girlfriend Kikyo, and their uncanny resemblance in face and feature were enough, thank you! Ever since that time by the pool, back when she and InuYasha had first met three years ago, she had refused to wear the white and red of a priestess. She had enough trouble dealing with Kikyo's memory.  
  
*InuYasha would just flip if he saw me in Kikyo's get-up. He'd spend all day sighing and moaning after that corpse, and I just couldn't stand it! Bad enough he can't get her out of his mind long enough for him to....oh, well. Enough of that! I won't think about it.*  
  
Nodding to herself, she shooed Shippo out of the hut and hastily got dressed. She took the rest of her scorched clothing and thought longingly about a bath, though it would be cold in the river and she didn't know if she should get her bandages wet. She should go and ask Kaede, at least.  
  
Her legs and feet were bandaged as well, and Kagome had to grit her teeth when she stepped on her tender feet. She let out a groan. This wasn't going to work.  
  
"Kagome?" InuYasha, brushing aside the bamboo curtain covering the door, stuck his head in, ears cocked toward her. "Shippo says you're awake."  
  
"Yep." Kagome winced again as she stepped forward on her other foot.  
  
"Well, you should have been up earlier! What are you doing, sleeping the whole day away!" InuYasha began.  
  
"What?! Excuse me?" Kagome saw red. She tottered closer, and almost collapsed as a stab of pain shot up both feet.  
  
InuYasha was there in an instant, holding her up. "What the hell are you doing? What's wrong with you?"  
  
"My feet." Kagome bit out, through the waves of pain. The aspirin wasn't working like it should!  
  
"Well, why didn't you say so?" InuYasha let out a big humph! of air and picked her up into his arms so that her legs and feet dangled over his supportive left arm. "If you can't walk, why are you up?"  
  
"You just asked me why I was sleeping the day away!" Kagome glared at him.  
  
InuYasha glared back. "Stupid! What are you trying to do, hurt yourself more?" He took her outside of the darkened hut, and the bright sunlight made Kagome flinch. InuYasha's tone gentled at her wince. "Are you sure you're okay? You're only a mere human, you know. You can't heal like I can, you know."  
  
"I know." Kagome gritted out. "But I can't stand it. I stink of smoke and reek of soot. I want to take a bath, but I have to ask Lady Kaede if I can get wet with my bandages and all."  
  
"You sure do smell pretty strong." InuYasha said casually, carrying her toward the fields where he knew Lady Kaede was. Kagome glared at his agreement, and started to struggle. InuYasha tightened his hold on her small form, and she subsided. InuYasha paused under the shadow of a tree on the edge of the field, and gave Kagome a long, compelling glance out of his yellow-brown eyes.  
  
"But you smell nice, Kagome." He reassured her softly.  
  
"InuYasha...?" Kagome trembled in his strong arms. Her kind brown eyes softened as she looked up at him. InuYasha gave her a tender smile in return.  
  
"Kagome! InuYasha! I've found you!" Shippo came bounding over. "Lady Kaede's looking for you!" He jumped up on InuYasha's shoulder. "InuYasha! Why are you holding Kagome all close like that, huh?"  
  
InuYasha gave the incorrigible cub an impatient glare. Kagome blushed furiously. InuYasha shrugged his shoulders, dislocating the kitsune and jarring Kagome. "Get outta here, you little runt! I'm taking Kagome to Kaede!" He stomped off, the girl in his arms, all thoughts of tenderness out of his mind.  
  
*Oh, well.* Kagome sighed to herself. *Back to square one.* 


	6. Chapter Five: No Way Home

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
Chapter Five (No Way Home)  
  
Lord SesshouMaru was back up in the Western Tower, staring sightlessly at the stunning vista before him. This time his thoughts were centered around the girl, and not his brother's sword. The girl continued to elude him. He could not place her family, unless she was somehow related to the dead Kikyo. The resemblance was peculiar; the girl could be Kikyo's twin. She was not a sister; Kikyo's only sister was now a fifty-plus year old crow of a priestess. A cousin, perhaps? It would explain why his hanyou brother and his strange woman and their friends spent so much time in the old miko's village.  
  
How amusing it was, to think that his half-breed brother had only fallen for a woman who but reminded him of his dead, former love.  
  
*Pathetic.*  
  
It was surprising, though, how little he could learn about the girl. The youkai he had bothered to interrogate could only give him sketchy details at best. From various sources, he had learned that she would disappear from time to time in his half-brother's forest. That could easily be accounted for, she could be trysting with the feeble hanyou. But InuYasha did not always go with her. Curious, indeed.  
  
He knew that the girl could sense Jewel shards, which made her worth to most petty demons pretty valuable. A Taiyoukai such as he did not need the Shikon shards to increase his own inherent powers. The eventual gathering of shards by Naraku might lead to a confrontation with the dark hanyou one day, when the fumbling baboon turned his jealous eyes toward other lands and ambitions, but the thought had never really worried the Lord all that much. Naraku would die from his own ambitions one day, and SesshouMaru would take delight in it.  
  
The girl also had some strange powers of her own. She had withstood attacks from many youkai that would have killed lesser beings. Of course, she had the protection of his foolish half-bastard brother, and of the other friends in their group. The monk and the demon exterminator had their own talents, but they were still petty compared to any real power.  
  
Some of the youkai he had interrogated had said the girl used a bow and arrows, and that she had some type of purification powers. Such powers a miko might lay claim to. But the girl did not wear the robes of a priestess. In fact, her attire was rather immodest. It showed her status as InuYasha's whore. Foolish ningen.  
  
There was only one thing left to do. He must go and observe the girl himself. Then, he could satisfy his questions, and if not, he could take the girl and ask her directly. He would see how much his half-brother preferred the woman, and if the foolish hanyou cared for her as much as Naraku had suggested, than the possibility of humiliating InuYasha by using her would be open to delightful contemplation.  
  
A slow smile curved the cold, arrogant face of the thoughtful Taiyoukai.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"What do you mean, I can't go home?!"  
  
*Somehow, this feels like deja vu. Haven't we had this argument before?* Kagome thought idly in the back of her mind even as she glared at the hanyou across the fire from her.  
  
InuYasha gave her an indifferent shrug. "The well's gone."  
  
"WHAT?" Kagome's eyes flashed daggers.  
  
"Calm down, Kagome." Miroku, sitting between them, opened his dark blue eyes. "What InuYasha says is truth."  
  
"What do you mean, he's telling the truth?" Kagome glared at the hapless houshi.  
  
"The well was burned in the fire, Kagome." Sango said quietly, her eyes troubled for her friend. "It's covered in ash and debris."  
  
"What are you saying?" Kagome pleaded with her friend.  
  
"She's saying--" InuYasha stood up, jaw thrust out, arms crossed over his chest, "--that you can't go home. There's no way now, with the well gone."  
  
"You...you can't be right." Kagome said, shaking. She stood up, disturbing Shippo, who had been curled up at her side, asleep. She pointed a finger at InuYasha, glaring. "You're lying! You just want me to stay here and find your stupid Jewel shards for you! You don't want me to leave at all! You just hate the fact that I have a life of my own in my own time! You...mutt-face!"  
  
"Mutt-face?!" InuYasha yelled back. "You've been hanging around that stupid wolf-boy again, haven't you? Haven't you!" As an after-thought, he included: "And I'm not a liar!"  
  
"Kagome! InuYasha!" Miroku stood up as well, holding his hands up to try and pacify the furious pair. "Stop yelling, it accomplishes nothing!"  
  
"And what if I have? You wouldn't care!" Kagome yelled back, ignoring Miroku.  
  
Shippo had sat up by this time, and blinked at the furious exchanges. Creeping over to Sango, who looked a little sad, he whispered, "At it again, huh?" Sango shook her head minutely down at the incorrigible kit, a faint smile curving her lips.  
  
"Why, I otta---" InuYasha growled.  
  
"What? Otta what?" Kagome egged him on.  
  
"InuYasha! Stop this stupid, senseless quarreling! Kagome! Sit down and listen to what we are trying to tell you." Miroku interrupted them. Kagome, back stiff, glared at the whole group. She quieted, but refused to sit back down. InuYasha turned his back, arms still crossed, and glared at the lengthening shadows around them. The sun had patterned the sky in hints of amber and pink as it settled toward the horizon.  
  
"Kagome." Miroku turned to the more amenable party. "InuYasha is telling the truth. The well has disappeared. The rim, which was made of wood, has burned to the ground. InuYasha and I went and looked for the Jewel shard that the Ash-demon had had in its body, and we saw that the spot where the well once stood was covered in dirt and ash. I don't know if you can use it to get back home. There's no opening there for you to use."  
  
Tears sparkled in the girl's brown eyes as the monk's words sunk in. "You can't be right. You can't." She said brokenly. *Mom. Sota. Grandpa.* Pictures of her family flooded her mind, and the tears came in a flood.  
  
"Aw, man!" InuYasha growled as he smelled Kagome's tears. He looked back over his shoulder, and saw the girl hunched over, small hands covering her face.  
  
Shippo bounced out of Sango's lap, worry written over his small face. "Kagome? It's going to be okay, Kagome!" He hugged her leg. Kagome sunk to her knees, shaking with suppressed sobs.  
  
"It can't be true! It can't!" She gasped. Sango reached out a hand, but she didn't know what to do for her friend. Raised in the harsh reality and training of a taijiya, she had difficulty with more tender emotions, but her heart hurt for her dearest friend.  
  
"I...I have to be alone right now." Kagome said brokenly as she detached Shippo from her leg. She stood up, spun around, and ran for the darkening woods that lay closest to their campfire. Shippo looked after her disappearing form sadly, but stayed where he was.  
  
Miroku looked stoically at InuYasha, his dark blue eyes trying to pass a message. The message wasn't being sent fast enough, so the houshi decided to use his staff as impetus.  
  
Thunk!  
  
"OW! What did you do that for?!" The hanyou jumped all the way around, glaring at the monk and rubbing the knot on his head.  
  
"Go and comfort her, you idiot." Miroku answered. "She's just lost her family, stupid, and she needs you!"  
  
"I'm going, all right already!" InuYasha growled at the monk, and then stared at the darkening woods, where Kagome had gone.  
  
"Go on, InuYasha." Sango urged him, her dark eyes sad. She looked defeated, something InuYasha rarely saw in the strong warrior. "Kagome needs you." She added softly.  
  
InuYasha nodded, and flew into the forest after Kagome.  
  
"Will she be all right?" Shippo asked the monk.  
  
"In time." Miroku said softly.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"KA-GO-MAY!" Her name rang through the forest, and Kagome shuddered behind the tree she sat against. She did not want to see the hanyou right now!  
  
"Go away, InuYasha!" She yelled back, tears leaving hot trails down her pale cheeks. *I never said goodbye! All those times I went back and forth through the well, taking it for granted! I never, ever thought it would be closed off! Mom! I never even said goodbye!*  
  
InuYasha was there; a dark, blurred form in front of her. His very presence had always overwhelmed her senses, and it still did now. She didn't want his brash words of argument right now, trying to take away her pain by distracting her with anger. She just wanted to curl up with her pain of loss and ignore the strange world around her. It was because of him that she was stuck in this stupid era, anyway! Couldn't he leave her alone for a few minutes just to be by herself and cry?  
  
"Kagome." InuYasha knelt down, and gathered her small body in his arms. Kagome tried to fight him for a minute, but he tightened his hold around her. Kagome choked back a sob, and InuYasha patted her awkwardly on the back. He had meant the gesture to calm her, but it unleashed the girl's tears. She nearly strangled him as she grabbed hold of him and sobbed her heart out on his robe. Amber eyes softening, the hanyou held the lost girl close and let her pain wash them both away.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
It was some time later that InuYasha could feel Kagome stirring in his arms. The girl had soaked the front of his robe with her tears, but he didn't care. He never thought how nice it would be to hold Kagome close like this in his arms. Her own sweet scent was heightened by the salty tang of her tears. She fit in his arms like Kikyo had, which felt right. The only difference between them was that Kikyo always felt cold now, like death, and Kagome was alive, warm and breathing, and needing him to protect her.  
  
Hiccup.  
  
There was another difference. InuYasha held Kagome's tear-stained face away from him, staring at her in surprise. Kikyo had never hiccupped.  
  
"I'm not Kikyo." Kagome said, eerily following his thoughts.  
  
"No." InuYasha said softly. "No, you're not."  
  
Kagome started to struggle, and InuYasha let her go. Pushing away from the hanyou, the girl stood up and faced away from him, her black hair mixing in with the dark shadows of the night.  
  
Sniff. "I'm not Kikyo." She said again. InuYasha stood up, and followed her. Putting his arms around the small girl, he gently turned her around to face him.  
  
"No, you're not." InuYasha replied, his amber eyes intense.  
  
"You can't keep thinking of her and me as the same." Kagome said brokenly, trying not to inhale his strong, woodsy scent as he held her encircled in his arms.  
  
"I don't." InuYasha lied. When Kagome refused to look up at him, he pulled one arm from around her waist and used the tips of his claws to tilt her head up. Staring into her watery brown eyes, he said the first thing that came into his mind.  
  
"You sure do cry a lot."  
  
And then he kissed her.  
  
It wasn't quite what Kagome had been expecting, and she started when his lips first met hers. The kiss was soft, and sweet, and everything she had ever hoped it would be. It was for her, and her alone, and not for some dead miko. She softened in the hanyou's arms, and melted into his kiss.  
  
*InuYasha...*  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Lord SesshouMaru's nostrils flared thinly. He could smell the arousal on both girl and half-demon. Her scent was enticing---and affecting. He felt his inu youkai blood stirring, and his eyes flashed red for a moment as his more basic instincts told him to seek them out, defeat the male, and claim the female.  
  
*Intriguing.*  
  
His more logical mind crept back in, taking control, and his blood cooled under his iron will. The fact that the girl could affect him so strongly was intriguing, indeed. He had never been around any mortal aroused with passion, and he was mildly surprised at his own reaction. He wondered if that was what so many of his youkai brethren found so attractive about ningen women.  
  
He continued to watch the pair as his half-bastard brother broke off the kiss abruptly and left the girl alone. The girl stared after the disappearing hanyou with stunned disbelief.  
  
*Pathetic.*  
  
The girl had been his for the taking, and InuYasha had left her there. *Stupid hanyou.* If the brat had had any sense, he would have at least claimed the girl, so ripe for mating. If he discarded her after he used her, so be it. But, surprisingly, the girl had not known a male's touch, youkai or otherwise. He could smell the innocense on her. InuYasha was a fool.  
  
The fact that he was still in love with his dead miko was well known. SesshouMaru had been surprised to learn that the miko's corpse still walked among the living. His hanyou brother's first love had fallen in with his blood enemy, Naraku, and was stealing the souls of the dead to keep herself alive. That was bitter irony that SesshouMaru could enjoy. But to spurn the willing arms of one who looked like his dead miko? That was foolish.  
  
InuYasha foolishly loved his dead miko, and he was definitely hiding some care for this new girl behind it. The stupid hanyou had held the girl in his arms and comforted her as she cried all over him. That act alone showed he had some feeling for the ningen. And he had kissed the girl, showing that, if he didn't love her for herself, he at least loved her for his dead miko.  
  
That was enough for the Taiyoukai. He could use the girl to humiliate his proud, brash younger brother. He could easily manipulate the situation to his enjoyment. He could actually steal the girl here and now, as his foolish half-brother had left her alone, in the forest, and at the mercy of any passing youkai.  
  
But SesshouMaru wanted InuYasha's humiliation to be total. How much more satisfying it would be if he could take the girl while his brother was looking on, helpless to protect her. The endlessly delightful possibilities bared thinking on.  
  
The Lord departed as silently as he had come, unknowing to the girl who stood all alone and despairing on the forest floor beneath him. 


	7. Chapter Six: Declarations

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
Chapter 6 (Declarations)  
  
Sango cast a worried glance at her friend. Kagome sat mostly submerged under the cooling waters of the swirling brook, refusing to talk. She had returned the night before and refused to look at anyone. Even Shippo had been cowed, and slept with Kirara curled up around him by Sango's side. InuYasha had not returned to the campsite, but Sango had heard him stirring in the tree branches above them. Disturbed, sleep had eluded her until late, when the quiet sounds of the night had lulled her into darkness.  
  
Kagome had risen early, without any of her usual early morning crankiness. Pointedly ignoring InuYasha, she had asked Sango if she wanted to bathe. Sango had quickly agreed, (though she never knew a girl who bathed as much as Kagome), thinking she might get some word as to what had happened between her and the hanyou in the woods last night.  
  
Kagome had carefully laid aside her yellow sundress--it was her only garment, now that the well-gate between here and her home was closed off-- and proceeded to scrub herself until she was red all over. She had gone from furious to grieving to numb in a continuous cycle that worried Sango. Never easy with emotions, Sango did not know how to ask the disturbed girl what the problem was.  
  
Drying off her own long black hair with a harsh cloth, Sango was surprised by the bitter words that came suddenly from Kagome.  
  
"He kissed me."  
  
Ignoring her own heart, which felt leaden like a stone, Sango raised her eyebrows in gentle inquiry, wanting to be there for her friend, but not wanting to break Kagome's opening mood with awkward words.  
  
"And then he left. He just left." Kagome hit the water with a fist, sending water splashing out further into the rippling brook. Pulling her hand out, she made a face as she stared at her finger tips. "Ugh. I'm getting all wrinkled. And this water is way too cold!"  
  
Amazed at the girl's lightening change of mood, Sango sat up as Kagome stepped out of the water. The girl was certainly beautiful, white and graceful. Sometimes Sango felt like a stick next to her. Over the past three years, Kagome's curves had filled out into the promise of womanhood. Sango had never really thought about her own body. She knew she was fair, even considered beautiful by some, but next to Kagome's soft curves she felt as hard as leather. Muscles and scars covered most of her frame, from all the training and fighting she had done in her young life. She had never really thought about her own beauty, or lack thereof, until she had compared herself to Kagome, and the way that a certain hanyou looked at the girl.  
  
*And monk.* She hastily added in her mind, picturing Miroku's leering smile. She let out a soft chuckle, which had Kagome staring at her in surprise.  
  
"Miroku." Sango waved her hand airily at Kagome. Kagome's dark brown eyes softened.  
  
"You really like him, don't you, Sango?" The girl asked.  
  
"Me?" Sango blinked. "Like that...hentai?" She suppressed a bitter laugh. If only Kagome knew! But Sango would never let anyone think that she could ever love...  
  
Abruptly changing the subject, she eyed her friend. "So what happened last night, Kagome? We were all so worried about you."  
  
"I know. Sorry I ran off like that." Kagome used the towel on her own wet hair. Her features hidden by black snakes of wet hair and the rough towel, she said haltingly, "It's just..."  
  
Sango reached out and placed a comforting hand on the girl's arm. Giving it a tiny squeeze of understanding and compassion, she whispered. "You don't have to say anything. I know."  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Aren't they done yet?" InuYasha grumbled, arms crossed as he stared where the two girls had left through the brush of the forest.  
  
"We could go check." Miroku suggested hopefully. InuYasha flashed him a disgusted look.  
  
"Hentai." He growled.  
  
Miroku shrugged as he put more dirt over the ashes of their campfire. "It was just a suggestion." Sitting back on his heels, he eyed the impatient hanyou blandly.  
  
"So. Did you kiss her?"  
  
InuYasha started, and then glared at the houshi.  
  
"What if I did?"  
  
"And then you left her alone, I guess. Stupid, InuYasha." Miroku sighed.  
  
"What would you know about it?!" The hanyou sprung from the ground to the nearest tree branch in a swirl of dust and dead leaves.  
  
Standing, Miroku picked up his staff and shook his head at the half- demon. InuYasha tried to ignore his words, but the hanyou's sharp hearing wouldn't let him.  
  
"You better apologize."  
  
*Damn.*  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Shippo waited impatiently for the rest of group to get their things together and start off. Perched on Kirara's neck, he sighed and crossed his arms over his chest like a certain hanyou he knew but would never admit to imitating. "They sure do take forever to get going, Kirara."  
  
The big cat gave him a slight growl in agreement, her red eyes watching her mistress. Sango finished tying her hair back and stepped forward to give the youkai a good ear scratching. The neko rumbled a strong enough purr that it vibrated Shippo on her back, making him giggle and laugh. Kirara leaned into Sango's hands, and the slayer smiled at her friends.  
  
"Stupid cat." InuYasha growled as he passed by them. Kirara growled back, somehow not interrupting her purr while she did it. "Hmmph. Whatever." InuYasha stalked on.  
  
"My, isn't he in a good mood this morning." Miroku said casually as he came up beside Sango, who stared after InuYasha. She had stopped scratching Kirara's ears, and the cat bumped her on the nearest thigh with her large head. Sango took the hint, and continued scratching. Kirara's purr rumbled louder.  
  
"I was wondering..." Miroku leaned closer to Sango, who eyed him suspiciously. "Would you purr for me if I was to----"  
  
Quick as a flash, Sango backhanded the monk with his own staff.  
  
"OW!!" The monk was now on the ground, holding his head, looking aggrieved.  
  
"Hentai!" Sango threw down his staff and stalked after InuYasha.  
  
Shippo stared down at the houshi, wide-eyed and grinning. Kagome, pulling on her hastily repaired backpack, shook her head at the monk. "You never learn, do you, Miroku?" She asked as she helped him stand up. As soon as he was standing, Kagome started following Sango into the woods. Kirara turned after her, Shippo giggling on her back.  
  
Miroku rubbed the knot that was forming on the back of his head as he bent to retrieve his staff. The rings tingled faintly as he followed the neko youkai, asking the thin air around him,  
  
"What did I say?"  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
The group traveled through most of the day silent and tense, lost in their own thoughts. Sango was still glaring at Miroku, and InuYasha was still growling over every little rock that got in his way as he stalked on ahead. Kagome kept giving InuYasha hurt, wondering looks, and Shippo wanted to scream at them all for being so tense and cross and childish.  
  
"AAH!" The kitsune's cry caused everyone to whirl around. InuYasha was there in a flash, the Tetsusaiga brightening to life in his hand as he looked wildly around for the cub's attacker.  
  
"Shippo! What's the matter?" Kagome raced to the kit's side as the others drew around the boy and Kirara.  
  
"I just can't take it any more!" Shippo thumped his fists into Kirara's thick fur in a tantrum. The neko wuffed in annoyance.  
  
"Shippo! Stop that!" Sango said angrily.  
  
"You little idiot!" InuYasha yelled at the kitsune, sheathing his sword. "You scared the spit out of me! I'm gonna---"  
  
"Don't you dare touch him, InuYasha!" Kagome grabbed up the cub in a tight hug, glaring at the angry hanyou.  
  
"Calm down, everyone." Miroku said, ever the peacekeeper. "We need to find out what Shippo can't take anymore." InuYasha growled angrily in reply.  
  
"This! You! All of you!" Shippo gestured wildly in Kagome's arms. "You're all acting like babies!"  
  
"Who's the baby, huh?" InuYasha's amber eyes glowed furiously.  
  
"You be quiet, InuYasha!" Kagome glared back, all her anger over his abrupt departure last night finding a good focus. "Leave him alone! And you ARE acting like a baby!"  
  
"Me?" InuYasha growled. "I'm not the one yelling and scaring everyone!"  
  
In one of her amazing changes of mood, Kagome hugged the little cub to her even as she admonished him, "That's true, Shippo. You shouldn't just cry wolf---"  
  
"Wolf!" InuYasha shouted. "Now you're talking about WOLVES!"  
  
Kagome's head whipped up, her eyes frosty. Miroku and Sango stepped back, staring at the pair nervously.  
  
"Uh-oh. Now he's done it." Miroku whispered.  
  
"I bet you're missing that flea-bitten cur, your lover-boy Koga!" InuYasha shouted.  
  
"You stupid..." Kagome hugged Shippo so tight in her fury he yipped. Loosening her hold instantly, the cub made a break for it, and took shelter on Sango's shoulder. Kagome finally found her word. "You stupid...mutt- face!"  
  
"Mutt-face!" They were toe to toe now, glaring at each other like fighting youkai. "You've been spending time with that stupid wolf-boy, haven't you!"  
  
"You stupid jerk! You don't even know what's right in front of you!"  
  
"Look who's calling me stupid! You're the one in love with that stupid mongrel!"  
  
"You really are stupid, InuYasha! If you could see the nose on your face, you could tell who I really AM in love with!"  
  
"How hard can it be? You and that flea-bitten cur should be more than happy together!"  
  
"You stupid jerk! If you would open your eyes, you would see that I was in love with YOU!"  
  
InuYasha blinked. "Wha...?"  
  
Kagome whirled, ready to stalk off, when Kirara suddenly tensed, hissing.  
  
"What...?" Sango immediately spun toward where Kirara was looking, grasping her weapon defensively.  
  
"What is it?" Shippo shook with fear on her shoulder.  
  
Miroku pulled his staff around, looking for the cause of the icy shiver that shot down his back. "Something's here."  
  
InuYasha whirled, pulling the Tetsusaiga free as the brush to their right parted. He stared in shock as his half-brother calmly stepped forward.  
  
SesshouMaru stared at the group with cold detachment. Standing proudly, he surveyed the defensive allies. His intense, golden eyes narrowed on his half-brother and the girl behind him, who regarded the Taiyoukai with a wide brown stare.  
  
"A touching drama, that was." Although his cold face remained expressionless, a slight sneer colored his deep voice.  
  
"You!" InuYasha growled. "SesshouMaru!"  
  
"I know my own name, hanyou. How many times must you repeat it to me?" The Lord taunted, easily inflaming his emotional brother.  
  
"What the hell are you doing here?" InuYasha demanded. "What the hell do you want?"  
  
The Taiyoukai regarded him with icy silence.  
  
"You can't have the Tetsusaiga! It's mine!" InuYasha raised the glowing fang.  
  
"I'm not here for the sword." SesshouMaru replied coldly.  
  
"What?" InuYasha was taken aback. His mouth fell open in frank surprise, showing the tips of his sharp canines.  
  
SesshouMaru allowed a little smile to curve his lips, allowing a glimpse of his own sharp fangs to appear. What he said next shocked them all to the core.  
  
"I'm here for the girl." 


	8. Chapter Seven: Enough!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
Chapter 7 (Enough!)  
  
A loud humming sound filled the air around the stunned group. Miroku flinched, the rings on his staff chiming in protest, and shouted angrily, "It's Naraku's insects!"  
  
The poisonous insects swarmed from the brush and trees around them, eyes red and wings whirling. They surrounded the group, who backed against each other defensively, forming a tight-knit huddle. Sango laid hand to her Hiraikotsu even as Kirara growled at the menacing swarm. Shippo launched himself from Sango's shoulder to Kagome's arms, even as the girl tried to filter SesshouMaru's words.  
  
SesshouMaru glanced idly at the interfering insects. Naraku's poisonous minions and spies. Distasteful allies, in the least. But if they served as a distraction for the group, then he would not spurn their assistance. A tingle in the air told him that even more youkai were assembling. Was Naraku thinking of using him, the Taiyoukai, as a distraction of his own? Then the baboon was even more foolish that he had been credited for. But that was neither here nor there. He had come for one thing only, and he meant to get it. Smiling faintly, his cold, arrogant gaze returned to focus on his brother.  
  
InuYasha gripped the Tetsusaiga, testing the air with his sharp nose. "Damn! We're surrounded!" The fang flared even more brilliantly, and SesshouMaru thought regretfully how all that power was wasted in his half- bastard brother's inept hands.  
  
"InuYasha! They're surrounding us on all sides!" Sango called out, to the left of the hanyou. "I can feel demons everywhere!"  
  
"I can't use my Wind Tunnel!" Miroku glowered, brandishing his staff at the hovering insects. The neko-youkai, facing the fourth side, with Kagome and Shippo protectively in the center of their defensive circle, roared as the first of the youkai crept out of the woods.  
  
"An Ash-demon!" Sango gasped as one of the forms stepped out from the trees.  
  
"Dammit, SesshouMaru! You can't fight your own battles, so you have to muddy it up with Naraku!" InuYasha spat at his brother.  
  
The Lord sneered faintly. "This is none of mine, hanyou. I am only here for the girl."  
  
"You can't have her!" InuYasha, consumed with red rage, launched himself at his brother, starting the attack.  
  
"InuYasha!" Kagome cried out in despair, as the group was left vulnerable. Sango's eyes widened as the first Ash-demon's sharp-toothed mouth opened to emit its first wave of flame. Hoisting the boomerang, she threw it with all her might at the youkai. The Hiraikotsu spun through the air, swiping the first Ash-demon's head off before it could breathe fire. The boomerang spun on its axis and hit the second fire youkai on its way back to Sango's hand. More demons were rushing from the brush, and Kirara yowled defiance.  
  
Miroku swiped at the diving insects, destroying them with his staff as quickly as they came. Ducking, he spied more demons coming from the forest. "We must flee!" He shouted above the bedlam as sharp-toothed worms swept from the trees.  
  
"Come on!" Kagome shouted, sliding onto Kirara's back. Flames leapt from the neko's paws. Sango grabbed Miroku by his blue robes as she escaped to the cat's side. Pushing him in front of her, they both barely settled on Kirara's back before she launched herself into the air, away from the swarming demons. A swath of fire followed their flight, barely missing them as the neko turned to avoid it. Some of Naraku's droning insects were not as fast, and their ashes dusted the screaming demons below them.  
  
"Hiraikotsu!" Sango released her weapon, gripping the neko-youkai tightly with her knees as she put thrust behind the boomerang. Kirara roared as she used her front paws to slice a launching worm demon from their path. Miroku swung his staff in a circle over Kagome's ducked head, shredding more of Naraku's insects. Kirara danced back, away from another flame.  
  
"There are too many!" Miroku shouted. "We need InuYasha! He can kill a hundred demons in one stroke of the Tetsusaiga!"  
  
"He's a little busy!" Kagome bit out, as she ducked under his staff again. Shippo trembled in her lap, his protesting yells muffled in the bedlam around them.  
  
Sango's boomerang cut a swath through the bristling youkai, but more poured out of the forest to take their place. Sango held out her hand, and the force of the Hiraikotsu's return nearly unseated her. Kirara roared and arched, trying to avoid another flash of fire. Sango released her weapon again, this time at the flying worms who tried to swamp them.  
  
Kagome, hugging Kirara's neck and protecting the terrified kitsune, tried to see the tell-tale flash of red that would indicate where InuYasha had gone. She couldn't see anything through the swirling smoke from the Ash- demons' flames. Muttering, she wished she had brought her bow and arrows, then at least she wouldn't feel like such a useless blob on Kirara's back.  
  
Kirara danced away on fiery feet as another flame passed below her. Poisonous insects darted in, only to be swatted by Miroku's staff. The boomerang spun destruction down on the swarming demons, who yowled their awful cries, making everyone's ears ring and Kirara mew in protest as her ears flattened. More and more youkai poured from the forest, however, and the defenders were getting tired.  
  
"InuYasha!" Sango called out in horror, even as she tensed for the return of her Hiraikotsu. Kagome lifted her head, staring down to where Sango was. Gasping, she saw InuYasha finally, back to a tree, sprawled on the ground, the Tetsusaiga knocked aside from its defensive position. SesshouMaru's poisoned green whip lashed out, flicking this way and that at the defenseless hanyou, taunting him. Trees and brush were uprooted and torn apart from the brothers' battle, and a great stretch of ground was unearthed from where InuYasha had slid into the tree.  
  
Kagome choked on her own fear. "InuYasha!"  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"You are a worthless fool, InuYasha!" SesshouMaru taunted, even as his whip struck again, dislodging a massive branch from the tree above InuYasha. "You still cannot harness the full power of the Tetsusaiga!"  
  
"Stupid youkai!" InuYasha rolled away from beneath the tree as the branch struck hard on the ground where he had been splayed a moment before. Gripping Tetsusaiga two-handed, he used the sword as a shield against the Lord's poisonous whip as he regained his feet. Silver hair swirled around him as he jumped into the air, arcing the flaring fang toward his brother. "I can see the Wind Scar, and I'll defeat you just like I did before!"  
  
SesshouMaru easily evaded the downward swing, and flew backward and up, the claws on his right hand brandishing as the whip condensed into green mist. A moment of anger enveloped him, and his eyes sparked red. The half-breed dared to insult him, the Taiyoukai of the West! He would die!  
  
Reasoning asserted itself, however, and the Lord hesitated to go nearer to his sword-swiping brother. It was too true that InuYasha could now see the Wind Scar, and while the blade could not kill him, thanks to his own Tenseiga, it still would effectively put him out of the battle. And killing the brat was not his goal.  
  
This time.  
  
InuYasha glared at his arrogant brother. Amber eyes glinted with inner fire. How dare he! How dare his damn brother think to take Kagome! She was his! The vortex of his demonic powers flared around him, brightening in red and white lines. He could see the winds of his brother's power above him, flaring black and silver as they collided with his. If he could only see the Wind Scar...almost...almost...a hint of brilliant light crackled at him. *There! That's it!*  
  
Triumphantly, InuYasha brought his sword to bear. Summoning the full power of the Tetsusaiga, he focused on that hint of light and swung his father's fang in a sweeping arc that would obliterate SesshouMaru above him.  
  
Suddenly, a third vortex of winds, purple and black, swept aside both his and SesshouMaru's, abolishing the Wind Scar. InuYasha screamed his fury as the Tetsusaiga clanged to the ground, the dancing white fire from the blade flickering out.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"KAGURA!" Miroku yelled in Kagome's ear, swinging his staff, rings chiming, and pointed it to the right.  
  
Startled, Kagome wrenched her eyes from the fight between the two brothers and saw Naraku's sorceress standing on an uprooted tree trunk facing the fighting youkai and hanyou. Dark winds swirled the silken robes of the Wind Sorceress around her lithe body, and she laughed mockingly at the dumb-founded hanyou.  
  
In an instant, SesshouMaru was beside the taunting woman. Silver- white hair swirled around him in the winds of the sorceress. "You." He said archly. "You are of Naraku." A poisonous yellow-green mist flared in his clawed hand.  
  
Kagura danced away from the Taiyoukai, giving him a mocking bow. "I am Kagura, the Wind Sorceress. You are SesshouMaru, supposed Lord of the Western Lands."  
  
The Lord's golden eyes narrowed. "You are as foolish as your master. You will die for your interference." Drawing back his open palm, poisonous green mist swirled over the beautiful wind youkai.  
  
Kagura laughed, sweeping her fan in an arc, calling the winds to turn away the miasma. "I am the Wind Sorceress! Your petty poison cannot hurt me!"  
  
SesshouMaru's whip cracked out, and Kagura screamed in outrage as part of her silken robes tore and fluttered away on the gusting winds. Snapping her fan shut, she swept white blades of wind toward the Taiyoukai and danced back to draw a feather from her hair. The Lord arched his whip back and forth, shattering the blades. Kagura sent more wind swords toward the inu-youkai with another flick of her fan.  
  
"Kagura!" InuYasha bellowed behind the Wind Sorceress. He stood his ground, his clawed toes digging purchase in the dirt beneath him as the funnel of winds blew his silver hair behind him. Raising the searing flame of his sword, he launched himself at the wind youkai.  
  
"You are too impetuous, InuYasha!" Kagura spat as she called her wind swords. "Dance of Blades!" She screamed as she jumped on her fleeing feather. Deadly white arcs of wind raced toward the hanyou, who could barely sweep the Tetsusaiga defensively in front of him. Blades cut through shoulder and hip, making blood spray the ground and trees surrounding the hanyou.  
  
Kagura laughed in delight, sending more blades of wind with the flick of her fan.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"NO!" Kagome screamed her fear and frustration as she watched Naraku's sorceress send forth her deadly wind blades.  
  
"Down, Kagome!" Miroku shouted as he swung his staff at more of the invading insects. Bodies squashed on impact with the ringed staff, and wings and carapaces showered the demons below them. Another eerie scream rang in their ears as an Ash-demon squealed defiance. Roars and screams filled the air around them. Kirara was panting, although she growled as she danced away from another flying worm demon. Sango, bracing for her returning boomerang, nearly fell off the neko in her exhaustion.  
  
Shippo whimpered in Kagome's arms as she tightened them in fear. They were all growing tired! There was no end to the demons, and InuYasha....InuYasha was hurt and bleeding on the ground, with two of the most powerful youkai she had ever seen hovering over him, ready to kill him at any moment. Even if he fended off Kagura, SesshouMaru was waiting to finish him off. *And here I am, without my bow or arrows. I can't even shoot at Kagura or SesshouMaru! I can't help InuYasha!*  
  
Helpless tears filled her eyes as she ducked under Miroku's swinging staff and Kirara yowled as fire glanced off her side. The red of InuYasha's robe swam before her eyes, looking like a pool of his blood on the ground as he raised Tetsusaiga against the wind swords of Kagura.  
  
White hot fire raced along her body, as fear and anger and frustration built itself into a blinding light. Glowing with sacred fire, Kagome released a yipping Shippo and felt herself rising off of Kirara's back without knowing or acknowledgment. Focusing on her hatred and anger and fear, she felt power building inside of her to the point of pain, to where she felt she would burst with the presence of the fire within her. Screaming in pain and fury, she shouted to the heavens,  
  
"ENOUGH!" 


	9. Chapter Eight: Taken

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
Chapter Eight (Taken)  
  
SesshouMaru's head jerked up toward the disturbance. Growling his annoyance at the distraction, his attention wavered between Naraku's annoying wind demon and the sudden vacuum of power above and to the side of him. Something was drawing power from the very forest and air surrounding them, drawing it into a center, much like the void in the monk's hand when he released the Wind Tunnel.  
  
Kagura's gasp pulled his narrowed gaze back to the pale sorceress. He could feel the sudden suspension of everything. Kagura's winds swirled to sudden silence, and the eerie scream of an Ash-demon was cut off in mid- cry. Even the lightening strike of his poisonous green whip sizzled to stillness. It was as if the very earth drew breath around them.  
  
"ENOUGH!"  
  
The cry reverberated through the Taiyoukai's very being. He could feel the denial throbbing in his soul. Tensing defensively in anger, SesshouMaru gripped the hilt of the Tenseiga instinctively as he stared up at the pulsing power above him. White and pink fire danced around the shadowed form of...something, someone...that flung its arms out in attack.  
  
Basic instincts took over, and the Lord fled the awesome release of that pure power. With reflexes honed and sharpened to the keen precision of a fine sword, the Taiyoukai swept back, away from the onrushing wave of pure energy that emanated from the shadowed center of the furious ball of pink fire. As quick as he was, he barely avoided being swept away in the consuming wave of raw force.  
  
Darting up and away from the sparkling waves of sacred power, the Taiyoukai shot up like an arrow to the relative safety of the air above. Mentally stabilizing his aerial position, he studied the scene far below him in some incredulity.  
  
The pulsating power bathed the surrounding forest for nearly a quarter mile. Eerie screams and defiant yowls from the swarming youkai were abruptly cut off as the surge touched the demon horde and swept them away into dust like a clearing wind. Kagura's scream pierced a new decibel in sound as she was caught in the purifying wave. He saw the Wind Sorceress, her robes and feather torn from her in the initial blast, writhe in pain and horror as the fuchsia-streaked power swamped over her. Her white form, red eyes wide and terrified, mouth open in a silent scream, disappeared into a sudden purple-black miasma, and her essence was gone.  
  
"Kagome!"  
  
The bewildered cry made Lord SesshouMaru turn his head sharply to the left. Behind the spinning sphere, a neko youkai hovered on fiery paws, his hanyou brother's foolish allies on its back. The girl was not among them, and the Taiyoukai looked at the bright figure in the pulsating ball of pure energy with narrowed eyes. Surely, it couldn't be InuYasha's ningen. She might be able to claim the paltry powers of a mortal miko, but this...  
  
The energy was slowly dissipating into points of pink and white light, and the furious fuchsia glow that surrounded the shadow was flickering and losing its focus. The Lord watched coolly as, with a final flare of released energy, the lights flickered and died. The shadowed form crumpled in on itself, and fell toward the forest floor below. Black hair streamed over the girl's face, her short yellow dress billowing in the downward pull of the earth.  
  
"Kagome!"  
  
The cry made the Taiyoukai's eyes narrow. Maybe the girl wasn't as powerful as he thought. To be so easily overcome by a mere release of sacred energy...  
  
Regardless, it would not hinder his plans for his half-bastard brother's woman. He just needed InuYasha awake and aware to make the humiliation of defeat complete.  
  
SesshouMaru waited dispassionately, knowing that the girl's friends would catch the ningen before she fell too far. Even as the girl's limp form shot down to earth, the neko roared and sped under the falling girl. The monk grasped the girl in his outstretched arms, and desperately clutched her limp form to him.  
  
The Lord's attention was drawn back to his brother. InuYasha, blown back into the trees by the sacred energy blast, was gingerly picking himself up. Clutching the rusted length of his sword, the stupid hanyou glared around the now-empty clearing. His angry gaze finally looked up, to meet the Taiyoukai's cold one. Flashing his canines, the hanyou yelled defiance at the Lord.  
  
SesshouMaru smiled.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Take us down, Kirara!" Sango ordered the neko youkai, as she peered anxiously over Miroku's shoulder at the limp form of her friend. The neko rumbled agreement, and coasted down at an easy pace, trying not to jar Kagome. Shippo was clutching one of Kagome's pale hands, a look of utter terror and devastation on his little face. Tears brightened his green eyes, and he shook with worry over his friend.  
  
"How is she, Miroku?" Sango asked in a terse whisper as the big cat stretched its fore-paws to land softly on the ground. Uprooted trees and upturned earth marred the greenery, but Kagome's purifying energy had cleared away all signs of the attacking youkai and had even put out the smouldering fires of the Ash-demons.  
  
"She's breathing." Miroku said, tense with worry. He slid awkwardly off the neko, trying to keep Kagome's weight balanced. Kirara rumbled encouragement as Miroku levered the girl into his arms. Shippo, mewling with anxiety, promptly scrambled up the houshi's arm to his shoulder, where he could keep watch on his beloved Kagome.  
  
Carrying her to the base of the nearest tree, Miroku carefully laid Kagome down on the ground. Shippo hopped down to kneel at the unconscious girl's side and grip one of her limp hands in his own small paws. "Miroku! Kagome will be all right, won't she?" Tears slipped down red cheeks.  
  
Sango slid off Kirara, patting the neko youkai in absent thanks, and followed Miroku to the tree. The taijiya carefully laid her boomerang aside, and knelt on Kagome's other side, across from the anxious monk. Picking up Kagome's left hand, she counted the pulse beats in the girl's wrist. Her heartbeat was fast, but strong. Smiling, she met Miroku's worried blue eyes.  
  
"She's all right, Shippo." Miroku grinned, a sigh of relief shuddering through his tense muscles.  
  
The cub whimpered, trying to hold back more tears, and hugged Kagome's hand tightly to him, trembling. He kept his head bowed, his fluffy tail shaking as he tried to contained his sobs.  
  
Sango reached out a tentative hand to the kitsune, and awkwardly patted him on the back. Shippo refused to be moved, and stayed trembling by his Kagome's side.  
  
"Shippo." Sango said softly. "She's just unconscious. That...that...power...just drained her. Kagome will be fine."  
  
Kagome stirred slightly at the sound of her name, a quiver going through her limp body. Lashes flickered on pale cheeks. "InuYasha..." She murmured.  
  
"Kagome!" Shippo's eyes brightened. Letting go of her hand, he dashed the tears from his eyes. "Kagome! It's me, Shippo! Are you okay? Are you hurt? Please say you're okay!"  
  
Kagome's eyelids fluttered before she blinked them open. Her eyes tried to focus, and she shuddered with chill and exhaustion. "Shippo..." She said faintly. The fox cub abandoned her limp hand to pet her pale cheek.  
  
"You're so cold, Kagome! What happened to you? I was so worried! I thought you were..." The kitsune shivered at the evil thought.  
  
"Can you move, Kagome?" Miroku asked anxiously. Kagome smiled faintly at the worry in her friends' eyes. Her fingers fluttered, and she felt empty and cold and as heavy as a ton of bricks.  
  
"I'm so tired..." She whispered, closing her eyes.  
  
"Kagome!" Shippo's anguished cry revived her. With effort, for every move seemed like she was wading though honey, she opened her eyes and tried to stir.  
  
"No, Kagome." Sango said, patting her numbed hand. "Don't move yet."  
  
"The demons..." Kagome whispered.  
  
"Gone. All gone." Miroku said. "You killed them all, Kagome, with your energy wave."  
  
"InuYasha?" Kagome closed her eyes wearily. Why did she feel so cold?  
  
"Er..." Miroku blinked, a chagrined look on his face. The taijiya bit her lip. Kagome's eyes flickered open at their silence, and she managed a faint, tired glare at the two friends.  
  
"I should go see..." Sango said, hurriedly standing up and retrieving her Hiraikotsu.  
  
"Er, me, too." The houshi, flushed with embarrassment, backed away from the exhausted girl. "We'll go find him, Kagome. Don't you worry. He's okay. He can take care of himself, after all. He's pretty tough, you know. But we'll go check, all right?" Avoiding the girl's eyes, he hurried after the slayer.  
  
"Don't worry, Kagome." Shippo said with assurance. Now that he knew his Kagome was fine, all was right in the world, and his usual spunky optimism was reasserting itself. "I'm sure InuYasha is fine."  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Dammit!"  
  
Inuyasha glared at the rusted blade in his hand, shaking it impatiently like a stick. Indignant rage consumed him. *Why won't the Tetsusaiga transform?*  
  
"Problems, little brother?" SesshouMaru taunted, as he slowly swept down to the ground. Silver-white hair swirled behind the Taiyoukai as he settled softly to the floor and stilled behind the cold, arrogant sneer.  
  
"Shut up, SesshouMaru!" InuYasha yelled, seeing red. "I don't need any stupid sword to finish YOU off!" He flung the bent blade aside, and assumed a defiant fighting stance. White claws gleamed with a razor edge as he brandished his right hand.  
  
"Foolish hanyou." Faint amusement flickered in the coldly golden eyes. "You just threw away your one chance at saving your ningen."  
  
InuYasha roared, jumping at the arrogant youkai. "Iron Reaver, Soul Stealer!" He shouted as his hand, deadly claws extended, reached for his brother.  
  
SesshouMaru easily sidestepped the enraged hanyou, a slight smirk on his lips. Whirling around, his own strong hand grabbed InuYasha's other arm in a tight grip. Green mist poured out of his palm, sizzling the hanyou's flesh as the poison ate through the skin.  
  
"AAH!" InuYasha roared in pain as SesshouMaru's grip jerked him around and poison ate through his left wrist. "Damn you!" He hissed between gasps of pain. SesshouMaru merely regarded him dispassionately.  
  
"You are a half-breed, InuYasha. Accept the fact that you will never be a match for my power." SesshouMaru's voice was unemotional and cool.  
  
"Stupid youkai!" InuYasha growled, amber eyes glowing with red hot rage. His right hand tightened spasmodically, and he flexed his claws. "Iron Reaver!" He snarled at the Taiyoukai, and hit the arrogant Lord in his unprotected left side with all his might.  
  
Growling, SesshouMaru released the hanyou's arm and swept back, away from the tearing claws. Yellow streaks of power followed him. The black armor that protect his upper chest and maimed arm cracked and fell away. A sullen stain of blood seeped through the white silk of his robe, and dripped down his side.  
  
InuYasha laughed as red streaks seeped through the narrowed golden eyes of his enraged older brother. "You're a stupid, posturing dog, SesshouMaru!" He taunted, flexing his claws.  
  
The taunt seemed to mollify the Taiyoukai, and InuYasha blinked, not expecting that the Lord would react that way. What should have maddened the Taiyoukai into uncontrollable rage was having the opposite effect. The red streaks disappeared from the intensely golden stare, to be replaced by the faint amusement of before. InuYasha stared at his brother in frank surprise.  
  
"You are a child, InuYasha." The Lord of the Western Lands said bitingly. "I do not have time for your silly, little games."  
  
*What?*  
  
Quick as lightening, the Taiyoukai's poison whip flicked out and cracked above the hanyou, in and out in snapping sweeps.  
  
Ducking instinctively, InuYasha grinned toothily when the whip did not touch him. "Dumb dog!" He taunted his brother. "You're getting old, SesshouMaru! Your aim is failing!" Raising his right hand, he flexed his white claws meaningfully.  
  
A single brow raised on the arrogant face, and InuYasha heard a faint rustle above him. Suddenly nervous, he glimpsed upward. Amber eyes widening as dark shadows enveloped him, he saw the tall trees surrounding him tilt over menacingly. With a yell of rage, he tried to put up his claws in futile defense as the trees fell over him, crushing him to the ground with their weight. Groaning timber cracked and thudded as more trees fell over the buried hanyou, his cry lost in the roaring of cracking timber.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"NO!"  
  
The cry came from above SesshouMaru, and he looked up to see the flying neko, InuYasha's ningen allies on its back. With an impatient growl, he raised his glowing hand. The yellow-green mist swirled between sharp claws, and he made a complicated dance with the extended palm. Weaving in and and out in a complex pattern, he suddenly flexed his fingers, claw-tips glinting, and released the ball of poisonous miasma.  
  
"InuYasha!" The taijiya called out, holding her weapon threateningly. Hot brown eyes blazed at the Taiyoukai, and she released her boned Hiraikotsu a moment before the green mist surrounded them. The monk tried to deflect the miasma to the side with his protective staff, but the mist was too powerful for the houshi. The neko snarled and tried to flinch away as the mist expanded and enveloped the interfering ningen. Abruptly, the defiant roar of the neko youkai was cut off as the shield surrounded them.  
  
SesshouMaru easily sidestepped the spinning boomerang, and with a casual swipe of his claws, he broke its reverse spin. The Hiraikotsu, abruptly stopped from its momentum, crashed into the ground, leaving a swath of torn earth behind it. The Lord allowed a slight smile to curve his mouth. It was almost too easy.  
  
*Feeble ningen. Why do they ever try to defy my will?*  
  
The poisonous shield that surrounded the hanyou's allies would keep long enough for the Lord to get what he wanted. Eventually, the ningen would break it open, but not in time to help the girl. SesshouMaru sniffed carefully, and his cold gaze turned toward where the girl lay in the sheltering forest. A faint wisp of youkai scent, tangled with the girl's, made him stiffen, and he was there in a breath's moment, glaring down at them.  
  
The girl lay against the roots of a tree, black hair tangled over her shoulders. Her bright yellow shift (it was too short and revealing to be anything else) only emphasized her pale white skin all the more. The girl's eyes were closed, but the Taiyoukai could tell that the girl was resting, not dead. A small kitsune cub was huddled by the girl's side, avidly watching her. The Taiyoukai felt a spurt of impatience. This was the demon he had sensed?  
  
The fox cub tensed, suddenly sensing the Taiyoukai's own powerful presence. Big green eyes looked over the small shoulder, and the furry orange tail almost stood on end in fright. The Lord silently regarded the little pup, waiting coolly.  
  
"SesshouMaru." The kit whispered, terrified. The Taiyoukai could smell the excited fear on the pup, but he was startled momentarily when, instead of running, the pup jumped around with his fists held at his sides. "You can't have Kagome!" He shouted defiantly.  
  
"Get out of the way, fox child." The Lord growled.  
  
"No!" The kit yelled, and threw a bunch of leaves at the Taiyoukai. Half a dozen kitsune, each an exact clone of the little fox, were running around screaming, "No! No! No!"  
  
Impatient with such nonsense, SesshouMaru allowed his poison whip to snap out at the annoying kits. Back and forth his whip flashed in eerie green light. The merest brush of the lethal whip sent the clones disappearing with a little "pop" of released air. The Lord let the poison sizzle and die once the illusions were taken care of, and he narrowed golden eyes on the trembling fox.  
  
"Leave, kitsune." SesshouMaru warned again, his voice cold.  
  
"No! You won't hurt Kagome! You won't!" The kit huddled over the limp form of the girl. His shouting was causing the girl to stir. SesshouMaru was running out of time...and patience.  
  
The little fox reached into his kimono, and hurled a spinning top at the Taiyoukai. The top enlarged as it spun toward him. SesshouMaru easily batted the toy aside.  
  
"You are beginning to annoy me, child." He said coldly. "I am done with these games." He took a menacing step forward.  
  
Suddenly, the kit changed. Where he had been standing protectively in front of the girl, there was now another girl, exactly alike to InuYasha's ningen, lying beside the first. SesshouMaru smiled faintly.  
  
Except for the tail.  
  
Bright and fluffy, with its hair standing on end in fright. The fox youkai was still too young to think about the little details.  
  
Striding forward, the Taiyoukai reached down with his deadly claws and clamped his hand around the betraying tail. A yelp of fright, and the illusion dissipated. Scared green eyes met the narrowed golden ones as the Lord held the kit up by the tail.  
  
"Enough of your interference, pup. I do not kill cubs, but your childish games are growing tedious." With a casual toss, the Taiyoukai hurled the kitsune into the air. A loud yelp of fright was followed by a rustle of leaves from the trees some distance from the clearing. The kitsune was unhurt, but it would take the pup some time to come back. In the meantime...  
  
SesshouMaru turned his attention back to the girl. So much loyalty and protection for such a little, useless ningen. The kit's defiance was almost admirable, if annoying.  
  
As the Taiyoukai contemplated the ningen before him, the girl stirred and opened weary brown eyes. "Shippo...?" She whispered in confusion.  
  
SesshouMaru was kneeling by the girl's side in a moment. His tail unfurled even as his clawed hand glowed faintly light green. "No." He said simply, taking a strange delight in the sudden frightened tremble that shuddered through the girl's small form as comprehension dawned. The scent of the girl's fear was almost...compelling. SesshouMaru allowed a faint smile to pass over his narrow lips as he touched the girl's forehead with his lightly glowing hand. The girl's eyes fluttered closed with imposed sleep, and her tense body went limp.  
  
Gathering the surprisingly light weight onto his arm, SesshouMaru used his tail to wrap support over the girl's back and dangling legs. The girl's head, facing away from him, rested on his arm, her hair tumbling down like a black waterfall over his arm and chest. He could feel the fast beats of her heart through his white robes, and the girl was surprisingly cool to the touch. The Taiyoukai wondered idly if the girl was more like InuYasha's dead miko than presumed.  
  
Lifting his head up from studying the girl's shadowed cheek, he tested the air delicately with his nose. InuYasha should be releasing himself at any moment. He took to the air, and waited patiently, the unconscious girl held tightly to him.  
  
The sharp sound of cracking wood pierced the forest, and the mournful groans of splintering timber proceeded the sudden explosion as the hanyou finally released himself. Panting with strain, eyes faintly red with anger, the half-breed tensed, looking around.  
  
"SesshouMaru!" He shouted, eyes scanning the forest floor. The Taiyoukai waited for the foolish hanyou to look up.  
  
Amber eyes widening in shock, InuYasha finally saw them.  
  
"NO!"  
  
The shout reverberated and echoed through the forest. SesshouMaru merely smiled.  
  
"Be proud, InuYasha. Now you know the humiliation of defeat. You will never be nothing more than a half-bastard hanyou. Understand your weakness, and bow down to the miserable knowledge that you cannot even protect one stupid little ningen girl."  
  
"NO!!!" InuYasha roared in pain and denial. "KAGOME!!!"  
  
Satisfaction flared in the golden eyes of the cold Taiyoukai. With a mere mental thought, he was soaring up above the tormented hanyou, the girl held tightly to him. The helpless, raging hanyou disappeared behind him as he increased his speed. The first taste of vengeance had been delicious.  
  
And this was just the start. 


	10. Chapter Nine: Broken

A/N: WARNING! DARK IMAGERY! If you are under 17 or disturbed by darker subjects, do NOT read this chapter!  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
Chapter Nine (Broken)  
  
The Jewel never ceased to mesmerize him. The beautiful deadly colors that sang from it---the deep magenta of sunset, the bright fuchsia of anger, the pink of a spring blossom, the palest blush on a maiden's cheek--- they all enthralled him. The facets sparkled deep within the nearly- completed Shikon with their own light. THIS was the key to ultimate power, and rarely did it take such a beautiful form. The dark lord could stare at the Jewel for hours, idly dreaming of its vast, untapped potential.  
  
The dark hanyou was startled from his enjoyable contemplation by a purple-black miasma that erupted in the center of his shadowed room. Red eyes narrowing angrily, he waited as the swirl of purple-pierced blackness condensed and fell away, revealing the broken, naked woman that laid huddled on the tatami matted floor.  
  
The female youkai was curled into a fetal position, gasps of pain shuddering through the cringing form. Long tangles of wavy black hair barely covered pasty white skin. Singed and burned raw in various places, none of the recent wounds could match the distinctive spider mark burned into her back. Normally sharp claws were torn off at the tips, and she bled sullenly in places where she had been lacerated. The limp awkwardness of some of her extremities showed that her delicate bones had been fractured in many spots.  
  
"Kagura."  
  
The voice sent a deep shudder through the woman. A single tear slipped out of one tightly closed eye as she tried to curl away from that awful voice.  
  
The dark lord smiled at the wind youkai's terror. Terror was an aphrodisiac to the dark hanyou. He relished it like a fine wine---studying the dark layers of pain with an eye to its beauty, smelling the delicate aroma of aroused fear, tasting the delicious fright in all its pain and helplessness. Terror was erotic.  
  
He wondered idly if he should take the female youkai here and now. Her broken body, so helpless to move, might prove more entertaining than the times he had commanded her to lie with him, her angry defiance controlled by the clutch of her heart in his hand. Her pain and terror as he took her now, helpless and broken, might alleviate some of his anger at her failure.  
  
But no. Sexual gratification could be gotten anywhere. Any pitiful peasant girl, brought to the heights of terror by judicious use of pain and threat, could assuage his dark lust. Lying with the broken youkai would be like lying with the dead. And there was only one corpse he would ever consider taking to his bed, and she, in her cold contempt, was still---as yet---unattainable.  
  
Long moments of silence stretched on, as the dark hanyou studied the broken youkai cowering on the tatami mats. Finally, the terrified woman could stand it no more, and opened frightened red eyes to stare at the shadowed form of her Master.  
  
The hanyou Naraku was deadly, but mesmerizing. His beauty was dark and threatening. Thick black hair tumbled in sensuous curls down his back and a well-muscled chest was revealed by the casual openness of his purple robes. The white fur of a baboon's skin draped his lower body like the swirl of a frothy wave. Narrow red eyes regarded the woman coldly.  
  
"You have failed me. Again."  
  
The eyes closed tightly, another tear following the track of the first down her pale cheek.  
  
"You are useless to me now. You have lost your control on the winds." The dark lord flicked a hand at the wind youkai's empty, burnt fingers. The purifying wave that had attacked the Wind Sorceress had split her fan in two. Kagura flinched in remembered pain. When the fan broke, she had felt as is she herself was splitting apart. The fan had been as much of her incarnation as she herself had been. Without it, she was powerless.  
  
"I should kill you." The hanyou looked at the nearly-completed Shikon no Tama that he clutched in one hand. The woman shuddered, unable to speak as fear clutched her soul.  
  
A nasty smile curved the sensuous lips. "No..." The dark lord said thoughtfully. "That would be too easy."  
  
A slight whimper from the broken youkai made Naraku laugh softly, a sensual sound that sent chills down the woman's back as she lay defenseless before him.  
  
"Naraku..." She whispered, the pitiful plea an opiate to the dark lord. He stood up, allowing the white furs to slither down and pool on the floor beneath him. Idly turning the Jewel in one hand, he studied the broken woman for long moments, contemplating the perfect punishment for her ineptitude. Time and again, he had given the Wind Sorceress chances to dispose of the worthless dog hanyou and his ningen allies, and time and again she had failed.  
  
Naraku lifted his other hand, and a red glow suffused the palm. He could not resist squeezing the heart of his incarnation, relishing the feel of his power over the youkai. The woman screamed, a faint wisp of sound, as pain coursed through her broken, burnt body.  
  
The hanyou laughed, his eyes brightening with lust at the pain. "What if I was to return your heart to you, Kagura?" He asked casually, stepping closer to the white body. Kneeling beside the broken sorceress, he waved the glowing essence of her heart above her, taunting.  
  
The youkai opened her eyes, tears sparkling like jeweled diamonds in the ruby depths.  
  
"Beautiful..." Naraku breathed in the smell of her fear.  
  
"Please..." The woman shuddered in pitiful terror.  
  
"Do you know what you are asking for, Kagura?" The voice wrapped itself around her. Smirking, the dark lord opened his palm, allowing the red essence of the woman's heart to spill gently around the wind youkai. The pulsing red mist fell slowly toward the broken body, and then sunk into the white skin, vanishing as it touched the youkai. For a moment, the form was still, and then the faint throb of a heartbeat shuddered through her.  
  
A breath of pitiful gratitude turned into a gasp of pain as another heartbeat throbbed through the broken woman. "Naraku!" The woman whispered hoarsely in pain, eyes closed tight as shudders racked the burnt body.  
  
"Stupid sorceress." Naraku smiled. "You are now whole, but what does that gain you? You now know the true pain of your injuries and defeat. By rights, you should have died in the purifying wave of that ningen girl, and yet you lived, because I held your heart in my hand. I shielded you from certain death. But now you have back what you have so long sought. Is it as wonderful as you always dreamed, Kagura?"  
  
The awful voice was as soft as a lover's kiss, and as poisonous as a snake bite. The woman could only gasp with sobs as pain throbbed through every inch of her body. Every fractured bone, every spot burnt raw by the sacred wave tingled with vibrant agony, the pain twice as powerful as before. Each beat of her heart, long denied her, sent pain coursing through her blood in renewed torment.  
  
The dark lord watched the woman's suffering with delight. He couldn't resist running a clawed hand over her naked form, pressing here and there to send more pain to clench the writhing sorceress. He caressed the pale cheek of her face with the gentlest of touches, relishing the wetness of her tears on his fingers. Smiling softly, he dragged one sharpened claw tip down her cheek. A hoarse, choked scream followed the drag of his poisonous claw. The faint hiss as her red blood hit the purple-black drops of his poison was sensuous to the dark hanyou's ears.  
  
The broken woman writhed in pain beneath him, and Naraku felt his desire rising. Perhaps the pathetic youkai would be pleasurable after all. He could torture the little sorceress for hours, dragging each helpless scream from her with infinite patience and care. But even as the red in his eyes grew hotter with lust, the pitiful woman shuddered, gasping, and fainted from the pain.  
  
Disgusted, Naraku stood up. Glaring at the unconscious woman with contempt, he wondered spitefully what to do with the useless youkai. She was too damaged to ever be of any more use to him---not that she had ever done anything but fail him. Even his carefully laid plan to trap the wolf- demons had backfired due to her ineptitude. Weeks of careful planning had come to naught. He had expended more energy on creating the poisonously fake jewel shard that was to have destroyed Koga, the wolf tribe's young leader, than he ever had for any of the other Jewel shards. And because of Kagura's failure, the bitter wolf youkai now hunted for his blood.  
  
And hers.  
  
A slow smile curved the full lips as a delightfully vicious thought flowered in his mind. A most fitting punishment for the inept little sorceress.  
  
Raising his empty hand, he flicked drops of her blood from his claws. Black vapor, streaked with sharp purple and dull grey, started to mist from his palm. The twisting miasma engulfed the unconscious youkai, lifting the white, naked body to dangle brokenly in front of him. Tangles of wavy black hair swirled with the moving mists, cloaking the scarred cheek one moment and then twisting away the next.  
  
"A most fitting punishment, Kagura." The velvety voice caressed the unconscious woman. The miasma condensed and firmed, covering the white form in moving shadow, ready to disappear and take the wind youkai where the dark lord wished. White fangs flashed in a delighted smile. "I shall give the wolf-man what he wants."  
  
"You."  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"What is this, Miroku?" Sango demanded, scanning the yellow-green glow that surrounded them. Kirara was growling furiously beneath her, and Sango absently patted the hovering neko-youkai.  
  
The houshi waved his staff defensively at the barrier. The poisonous green mists had swirled over them, and he had been certain that they would be obliterated as it engulfed them. But the vapor had solidified into a bubble around them instead, effectively imprisoning them within.  
  
"I have never seen it's like." Miroku replied grimly, scowling at the glowing green shield.  
  
"It's like a spirit ward." The taijiya glanced around her. "Except it's keeping us in and away from our friends."  
  
"A spirit shield..." Miroku looked thoughtful. The rings on his staff chimed as it abruptly stilled in his hand. Sango gave him an impatient glare. While he sat there thinking, their friends could be dying out there!  
  
Kirara rumbled encouragement to her mistress, and the monk's head shot up, eyes bright. "I got it!"  
  
"You can break the shield?" Sango asked eagerly.  
  
"We need to create pressure inside the shield. Something to make it burst. On our own, I don't think we could do it. But if Kirara could..." Miroku's words were lost as the youkai roared to life. Fire flared from her paws, as she ran in a crazy, tight circle inside the barrier. Sango sunk her hands into the neko's fur, and Miroku took the chance to hang onto Sango. Even he couldn't linger on the thought of finally being able to hold the beautiful slayer as his hold tightened in the rising speed of the furious youkai.  
  
The rising wind of their movement beat at them, and the air pressure grew tight. The monk felt faint with the wild gyrations of the neko.  
  
*Maybe this wasn't such a good idea!*  
  
Even as he prayed grimly, there was a loud vacuum of force, and the green glow around them exploded into pinpoints of light. The neko yowled her triumph, and soared out of the dissipating mist. Miroku gasped for air, laying his head tiredly on Sango's back. His arms were wrapped tightly around her waist, and he felt the rise and fall of her own rapid breaths.  
  
*What a perfect opportunity!*  
  
Blue eyes brightening, one of his hands casually crept upwards...  
  
"HENTAI!" Sango's shout was only surpassed by his yelp of pain as her hand cracked on his cheek.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Sango! Miroku!" Shippo waved desperately form a tree top below them. Why could they not see him? Desperately, dashing tears from his eyes, he cried out to the neko, whose hearing was sharper than the ningen. "KIRARA! Help! I'm over here!"  
  
The big cat's ears twitched, and she abruptly changed direction. Miroku fell against Sango at the abrupt turn. The taijiya broke off her quelling glare at the monk as she spied the small kitsune below.  
  
"Shippo!" She called, a dark feeling of foreboding welling in her throat. Why was Shippo up in a tree? Why wasn't he with Kagome? Where WAS Kagome? And InuYasha? And---chilling most of all---SesshouMaru? Scanning the skies and ground around her, she laid hand to her sword, wishing she had her Hiraikotsu. She had been able to fling it at the Taiyoukai seconds before his green shield had cut her and Miroku off.  
  
*I hope I wounded the arrogant dog.* Sango reflected, surprised at the viciousness of her own thought. It could account for the Lord's disappearance. But what about Kagome? And InuYasha? Her last sight of the hanyou had been as a swath of trees, torn up by the inu youkai, buried him in their rubble. But she couldn't even see the pile of trees anymore. Instead, the split logs seemed to be spread in an explosion around the cleared area, meaning InuYasha had escaped. But to where?  
  
Kirara swept alongside the tree that held Shippo, and the boy jumped into Sango's arms. He was crying, sobbing incoherently into her shirt as he desperately held onto her. She tried to pet the trembling little fox as she nudged Kirara to take them down. The cat was growing tired, and they weren't seeing anything helpful from the air.  
  
Miroku tried to placate the sobbing kit. "Calm down, Shippo! Tell us what happened. Where is Kagome and InuYasha?"  
  
The cub cried harder, and Sango hugged him tightly. The neko rumbled at the kitsune, but he refused to be comforted or calm down. Sango had never seen the little boy so despondent. The dark foreboding again rose in her soul, even as she tried to soothe the little youkai.  
  
Kirara settled to the forest floor, and Miroku slid off her back. The rings on his staff jangled together as he swept to the the side with shock. "InuYasha!"  
  
Sango's head shot up, and she stared at the red-robed hanyou as he emerged from the shadowed trees. She held Shippo tightly, her heart beating wildly at the look of utter defeat and loss on the hanyou's face. The kitsune's loud sobs had quieted to choked sniffles of exhaustion, and the silence between the friends drew out for a long breath.  
  
"Kagome..." Sango whispered. The flash of the hanyou's amber eyes told her the story before the silver-white hair fell forward to hide his features as he bowed his head, shoulders slumped in defeat. Never had Sango seen the impetuous half-demon so lost and broken. Her heart clenched in her chest, and her faint whisper was lost on the sudden wind that howled around them.  
  
"Oh, InuYasha..." 


	11. Chapter Ten: Rock Pile

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
Chapter Ten (Rock-Pile)  
  
Jaken was waiting impatiently for the Taiyoukai to return to the castle. The imp had a long list of grievances to tell his Master regarding that filthy human girl the Lord had saddled him with. His brown robes were still damp from her latest antic. Dashing about in the koi pond was bad enough, but pulling him in after her! That was the limit!  
  
Years past counting he had spent serving his Lord, and this was the reward he got! Moldy clothes and a stinking ningen brat worrying his every waking moment! It was enough to turn him into a ferryman, like his mother had always wanted. Instead, he had to rebel and swear he would find the greatest Lord of the Land and serve as that Lord's chief advisor, basking in the shadow of reflected glory. That had been his fondest ambition. And he had thought he had found it in the ruthless young Taiyoukai. Years he had dedicated to his Lord, and what was his reward?  
  
A rambunctious, cheeky ningen girl who ran circles around him, to the amusement of the other youkai in the Lord's service. Where was the respect, the gratitude, the preeminence due his position?  
  
Yes, he would have a word with the Lord, as soon as he came...  
  
The sudden appearance of the Taiyoukai had Jaken bowing deeply. "Welcome home, me lord. All have been dismayed at your absence, Master, and may I add, are eager to welcome you home safe. We, and I---your unfailingly ever faithful servant---especially, have sorely missed you." Platitudes never hurt, and it might help his cause. Glancing up to see if his Lord was pleased by his welcome, the yellow-eyed imp froze. His mouth fell open in shock as his eyes bugged out.  
  
Lord SesshouMaru stood there, in all the glorious disdain and arrogance that Jaken had always greatly admired. But held tightly to him was a ningen girl, her black hair spilling over the Lord's white robes.  
  
"M-Master!" Jaken squawked. "Another human? You have brought back ANOTHER human? The youkai already talk about your peculiar attachment to that stinking turnip Rin, and now you have gone and brought another one into the castle? What are you thinking, me lord! Are we turning the castle into a sanctuary for lost ningen brats?"  
  
The Taiyoukai stared at the outraged imp long enough for Jaken to get nervous. REALLY nervous.  
  
"You are impertinent, Jaken." SesshouMaru said coldly. "I will deal with you shortly."  
  
Yellow eyes bulging, the imp quickly plastered himself to the stone floor of the terrace. "M-Me lord! Forgive me! I am but your humble servant! I only care for your reputation! Please, me lord! F-Forgive me!"  
  
"Get up, Jaken." The Taiyoukai was curt. When the slobbering imp had obeyed, the Lord swept by him, carrying the unconscious girl into the dark recesses of the castle. The trembling imp, clutching the Staff of Skulls to him protectively, hurried after.  
  
The Lord did not turn, but his orders fell on the anxious imp. "You will see that a room is made up for our guest. One suitably appointed for her security."  
  
"Security, me lord?" Jaken almost tripped in surprise.  
  
The Taiyoukai stopped walking, impatient with his servant. "Do you not recognize this girl, Jaken?"  
  
Jaken scrambled around the side of his master, curiousity gripping him. What human could the mighty Lord SesshouMaru wish to keep guarded? And why? He peered up at the limp form. With a shrug of his shoulders, he said testily, "She looks like every other pathetically ugly ningen wench I've ever seen."  
  
"Really, Jaken." The Taiyoukai growled. "Your stupidity continually astounds me. I often wonder why I keep you in my service."  
  
"B-But Master!" Jaken protested in hurt shock.  
  
"Enough of this." Lord SesshouMaru turned away and swept past his groveling minion. Jaken continued to stare after the proud Taiyoukai, blinking as the swirl of a yellow skirt fluttered past the faintly blood- stained white robes of his master.  
  
Blood-stained?  
  
Lord SesshouMaru was hurt? Jaken was startled into immediate action. The Lord would need a bath, at the least. And probably one of the youkai servants to poultice his wound---if it was his. It could be someone else's. That thought cheered the imp immensely. Still, the Lord would need clean clothes, immediately. And a bath. He would need to soak the stink of that ningen off of him. Oh, and the ningen needed a room. A suitably 'secured' room...  
  
Mumbling to himself, the distracted imp hurried after his Master.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
For lack of a better place to put the girl, SesshouMaru had settled her on a pile of cushions in his own sitting room. The girl was still unconscious, and had hardly twitched since he had deposited her there on the black and gold cushions. Turning away from the girl, the Lord stalked into his own rooms. He unbelted the shattered remains of his armor...he was definitely getting tired of replacing it. He would have to look into getting something stronger and more durable. But that could wait for later.  
  
Although Jaken was at times a bumbling fool, he still knew how to arrange matters to the Lord's wishes here in his own castle. Only a scatter of minutes had passed since SesshouMaru had arrived with the girl, but the Taiyoukai, with his sensitive ears, could hear the screeching voice of his advisor ordering the servants about. The Lord had merely loosened his sash before his body servants were there with silent swiftness to take his blood- stained robes from him.  
  
Most of his servants---servants whom his father, the great Western Lord, had captured or dominated and found suitable for menial work in the castle---were minor youkai. A few had enough strength on their own to affect the humanoid forms of ningen, but most could only keep to their natural demon forms. SesshouMaru preferred this, as their youkai forms were more agile and appropriate to the tasks assigned them.  
  
His head servant, Suyo, bowed silently, motioning the other servants to disrobe the Lord. Dispassionately, SesshouMaru let the ash-colored demons swarm around him. Taking the filthy robes from him, the Taiyoukai waited for the bath to be ready. Steam rose from the large, stoned basin that took up nearly all the space in the bathing room. The Taiyoukai settled gingerly into the hot water, and then relaxed as willing female youkai came to scrub the smell of exertion from him, massage the tense muscles and carefully clean his long, silver-white hair and tail. The Lord was fastidious in his person, and did not tolerate incompetence.  
  
Suyo waited patiently on the side of the bathing room. The spider demon had enough power of his own to affect the body of a human, but he retained the pale dove-grey color of his own youkai skin and the four arms he felt were more appropriate than two. A short, black top-knot and lightly pink eyes above a noseless face and fanged slit of a mouth gave the spider youkai a face almost as expressionless as his master's.  
  
It was Suyo who lightly bandaged the Taiyoukai's shallow wounds when he emerged from his bath. The claw marks had already started to heal on the powerful Lord, but there was no sense allowing the wound to re-open. A soft, loose robe, warmed by the hearth, was ready for the Lord to slip into, and the conscientious body servant had left some of the latest scrolls the Lord had been perusing on a side table before the fire.  
  
As soon as he was comfortably seated in front of the roaring fire, the Taiyoukai dismissed his silently hovering servants. Suyo stayed and bowed respectfully.  
  
"My lord. I would let you know that the human girl has been settled in the southern wing." The voice was soft and mellow, much more suited to the inu youkai's sensitive ears than the jabbering of his other close servant, Jaken.  
  
SesshouMaru nodded thoughtfully. His eyes narrowed on the fire in front of him, but his mind was not on the flickering flames. Suyo waited with infinite patience for his master's next order.  
  
"A ward should be placed on her rooms." The Taiyoukai said into the silence. The fire crackled on the hearth, sending sparks up the chimney. "She is a miko of unknown potential. She is unskilled in her art, but that could be more problematic than if she were trained. She could prove to be an unknown threat."  
  
Suyo bowed, slightly taken aback at the Lord's next idly spoken thought.  
  
"That might prove intriguing."  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"HUL-LOH! Is anyone out there?!"  
  
Kagome banged a small fist on the barred door to her rooms. Of course, no one answered her impatient shout---again. Frustrated, she angrily kicked at the thick wood of the door.  
  
"OW!"  
  
She grabbed her toes in reflex, hopping on one foot awkwardly. Tears flashed in her brown eyes, but she angrily dashed them away. Limping, she went back into the other room, which had a small window (more a slight fissure in the wall than a real window) at least, that she could look out of.  
  
Not that there was much to see. Just the sky and passing clouds. She had already spent hours staring out that window. She had even pushed and pulled one of the heavy tables over so she could scramble up on it and peer out. Not that she could see anything more than rocks and more clouds below. The fortress had to be up high for clouds to pass BENEATH it.  
  
Growing despondent, she thought about shouting out the window again, but she had already tried that. And got the same echoing silence as when she pounded on the door. But she was so fed up with being trapped in here!  
  
Sinking on the pillow-piled sleeping mat, she rubbed her sore toes absently as she contemplated her situation. Locked in the rooms for who knows how long, she had slowly recovered from her exhaustion. She had not seen or heard or spoken to anyone in all that time. Food had been left for her whenever she woke up, and taken away when she fell into exhausted sleep. The first time she had awoken, she had found a plain white robe with a simple sash. The next time, her own clothes, freshly cleaned and neatly repaired, had appeared. Gratefully, she had pulled them on. Since then, there had been nothing.  
  
Worry was with her every woken moment. With no word from anyone and no news on how her friends were doing or whether InuYasha was hurt or...  
  
"Stop right there, Kagome!" She told herself sternly. She wouldn't think about why InuYasha hadn't come for her yet. He could be busy. He could be trying to find her right now. He could be climbing up the mountain this stupid pile of rocks sat on right this very minute, intent on rescuing her!  
  
That thought cheered her up a bit. Well, she had no choice but to wait for him.  
  
*I just absolutely hate waiting.*  
  
She had already prowled all over the three connecting rooms. Her prison might be made of stone and locked with stout wooden doors, but it was spacious and well appointed. Besides the obvious bedroom where she sat, there was a small bathroom and a sitting room. The furniture was a bit heavy and bulky and didn't look like any feudal style she could recognize. Pillows were piled here and there around low tables, and there was even a writing desk with a funky open-ended, backless chair in front of it. Too bad there wasn't anything to write with. She might have spent some time composing indignant letters to the arrogant youkai of this rock pile and air-mail them out the window in folded paper airplanes...  
  
Still, the bathroom was surprisingly luxurious, for a medieval one. A sunken pool, large enough for her to lay down in, had warm water running through it continually. A small opening on either side, carved ornately with curlicued waves and leaping fish, allowed fresh water to flow in and dirty water out in a continual small stream. She could take a bath at any time, a luxury denied her even back home, where she had to share a bathroom with her pesky little brother Sota.  
  
*Sota. Oh, I would give anything to see him again.* Kagome thought with a pang. But InuYasha had said that the well was burned to the ground and the gateway home was forever sealed. She would never see her family again.  
  
She felt tears brightening her eyes, and she sniffed them back. She was so lonely and tired. All she wanted to do was see her friends and family again, and she was stuck here! With no word or acknowledgment or anything from her jailer!  
  
She let out a most unladylike snort, thinking about His High and Mightiness, InuYasha's youkai brother. The overly proud Taiyoukai of the Western Lands who looked down his long nose at his half-human brother and the rest of them. SesshouMaru certainly didn't have anything to be proud about. He was a stuck up snob with a chip on his shoulder who was continually trying to kill InuYasha. A TRUE brother would have protected the hanyou after his human mother died, instead of leaving him to seek his own way in a world that hated and feared him.  
  
SesshouMaru was a jerk.  
  
A smile curved the girl's mouth at that satisfying thought. But the smile froze as she felt a tingle that sent goose-bumps down her spine. Brown eyes widening in fearful realization, she slowly turned her head.  
  
There, in the archway between her bedroom and the sitting room, stood the tall, arrogant Lord of the Western Lands. Dressed in his favored white robes with the red-outlined flowers on cuff and lining, he stared back at her with coldly golden eyes. His face showed no expression, which sent a second shiver of fear down Kagome's spine. Suddenly, she was very, very afraid. Fearfully, she whispered softly,  
  
"SesshouMaru." 


	12. Chapter Eleven: Vow

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
Chapter Eleven (Vow)  
  
Hakkaku had been sunning himself on a nicely mossy rock, drowsily contented to let the afternoon wander idly by. He was supposed to be on watch, but now that the troublesome Birds of Paradise had been decimated to a few scant vultures hugging the barren crags of the upper mountains, he didn't really have to worry all that much. The supremacy of the Yorozoku had long been established in the mountains. And, besides, his wolves would let him know in advance if anything was truly threatening the caverns the Wolf-Tribe claimed as their own.  
  
Why waste such a beautiful day on needless watch? It was only that Koga, the young leader of the Wolf-Tribe, was so punctilious about such things. But, luckily, Koga wasn't here to growl and snap at him. Yawning broadly, and distractedly scratching at a bug bite on his arm, the wolf- youkai contentedly closed his eyes...  
  
"HEEYAH!"  
  
Startled awake by the yell, Hakkaku barely rolled off his warm rock in time to avoid the sharp spear point aimed at him. Scrambling for his own weapon, he narrowly missed thrusting his own spear through his wolf- brother. Scowling angrily, he thrust the point into the ground by Ginta, who laughed all the harder at Hakkaku's expression as he rolled to and fro on the ground like a frisking pup.  
  
"Are you stupid?" Hakkaku glared. "I could have killed you!"  
  
Ginta grinned toothily. "And I could have killed you!" Whistling his own pair of wolves to his side, he fondly scratched their ears before using them as a prop to stand up. Laughter dying, he drew himself up and gave his wolf-brother a haughty glare.  
  
"And what were you doing, sleeping on watch, huh?"  
  
Hakkaku scrubbed at the sleep in his eyes, tousling the white spikes on his otherwise shaved head, flushing. "It's not as if we really need to stand guard..."  
  
"If Koga knew you were sleeping on watch, he'd break your arm." Ginta scolded.  
  
"Ha! And who was the one he last found sleeping off guard duty, huh? Who then got night-soil duty, huh? Who had to clean out the midden for the last two weeks?" Hakkaku taunted.  
  
"Well, if you hadn't pushed me into the pool, then I wouldn't have splashed you..."  
  
"And Koga!" Hakkaku grinned.  
  
Ginta's answering scowl was cut off as his wolves whined, looking toward the forest below their watch-post. Both wolf youkai turned to stare at the dark forests as the wolves raised their noses and sniffed. One looked back at the wolf-brothers and wuffed.  
  
"What is it?" Ginta asked in a hoarse whisper. He automatically reached for his spear, Hakkaku following suit. Both youkai heard a faint howl on the breeze.  
  
"The Birds of Paradise?" Hakkaku asked, suddenly fearful. The vultures were fierce aerial fighters, and had taken their toll on the Wolf- Tribe.  
  
Ginta listened carefully as the faint howl was repeated. "No..." He whispered. "They've found something. Come on." He gestured for their four- legged brethren to go ahead. With a bark of understanding, the pair of brown-red wolves vanished into the dark forest.  
  
Hakkaku, as young and inexperienced as the nervous Ginta, shifted sweaty palms on his spear haft. Gripping it tightly with determination, he followed the grey-haired wolf-youkai into the shadowed forest below them.  
  
"What is it?" Hakkaku leaned over the crouching Ginta, trying to get a look. Ginta yelped, nearly falling over and sliding down the sharp incline below them. Scrabbling for the nearest hold---which happened to be Hakkaku---both youkai overbalanced and fell head over tail down the steep hillside. Their anxious companions fish-tailed after them, sending a shower of dirt and dead leaves cascading down with them.  
  
"Oof!" Ginta let out a grunt as Hakkaku landed on him. Eyes crossed at the weight of his wolf-brother, he jerked and gasped. "Get off!"  
  
"Ack!" Hakkaku spat out a mouthful of dirt. Rolling off Ginta, he stayed on his hands and knees, gagging and spitting the mud out. One of their wolves helpfully licked at his face with a long, wet tongue. "GAH!"  
  
A groan came from beside him. "You weigh as much as cow, Hakkaku! You've broken my back." The other wolves pressed in around Ginta, pawing and nosing anxiously at the grey-haired youkai. One of them whined significantly, and glanced to the right as more wolves came bounding out of the brush, joyful at seeing their two-legged brethren.  
  
Hakkaku was knocked off balance by the welcome, and started laughing as half a dozen tongues gave him a drooling welcome, tickling him with wet noses and rough paws.  
  
Ginta, not wanting a repeat of Hakkaku's wet greeting, pushed the excited wolves aside. Looking around for his spear, he saw some of the wolves turn to the right and whine anxiously. Turning their yellow-brown eyes back to the youkai, they wuffed low in their throats.  
  
"What is it? What have you found?" Ginta grabbed at his spear, which had followed his slide down the hill, and poked---not too gently---a giggling Hakkaku with a fur-clad foot.  
  
"Hey!" Hakkaku glared at the youkai, and then, seeing Ginta's attention directed at the brush, suddenly remembered that they had come there to investigate what had made their wolfish minions summon them. Hastily scrambling to his feet, he pushed furry bodies out of the way. He looked wildly around for his own spear, and couldn't find it. "Ginta..."  
  
Ginta made a sharp gesture of silence, and stalked to the brush, wolves hugging his legs. Shrugging, Hakkaku followed the youkai further into the forest. Here, the brush and trees grew close together, and they had to part the reaching branches to get through. The only sound in the sudden silence was the panting of the wolves, who urged them further into the shadows.  
  
Two of the wolves sprang forward into a small clearing, and growled significantly. Ginta paused at the edge of the clearing, and Hakkaku had to catch himself from plowing into the youkai. His retort was cut off as he caught sight of the small, huddled figure lying unconscious on the ground in front of them. Eyes widening, he said incredulously,  
  
"A woman?"  
  
Miroku added another branch to the fire, sending sparks snapping into the air. The red and yellow lights winked out as they flew upwards, like tiny fireflies. Shrugging tired muscles loose, the monk settled himself by the fire, the rings of his staff tingling slightly as he laid it down carefully beside him. He stared thoughtfully into the flames, as silent as the rest of their exhausted, despondent group.  
  
Sango sat, knees akimbo, across from him, an exhausted kitsune in her lap. The fox cub had cried himself to sleep, his nose red and his cheeks tear-stained. Kirara also slept, curled into a little ball of fluff, her two tails twitching occaisionally as she growled in her sleep. Miroku wondered idly what demons the neko chased in her sleep.  
  
InuYasha had taken to the tree limbs above earlier in the evening. The hanyou had refused to talk about it, and Miroku had not pressed him. It was obvious that he had some pain to deal with, and Miroku was not one to intrude---at least when it was important. A faint smile touched his lips, and then departed. The group of friends had had the heart knocked out of them with SesshouMaru's abduction of Kagome.  
  
He sighed wearily.  
  
Sango looked up at the sound, her eyes dark and mysterious in the flickering shadows of the fire. Her midnight hair became one with the night around her. One hand slipped out to pet the cub in her lap, who gave his own little sigh and burrowed further into her skirt. Miroku watched the hand, thinking about the contrasts. So small and feminine, and yet so strong and able, the calluses of war hiding the softness beneath. It was much like the beautiful taijiya.  
  
"I..." Sango began, and then let the thought die.  
  
"Yes. I know." Miroku replied. "We are all missing Kagome, and feeling we have failed the trust she had in us."  
  
"Poor InuYasha." The whisper was soft and full of understood pain and regret. The small hand continued to pet the sleeping kitsune.  
  
InuYasha heard the soft whisper...how could he not, with his demon- enhanced hearing? Flattening his ears, he growled low in his throat. He didn't want to hear the others talking about him. He didn't want to acknowledge their sorrow and pity.  
  
Damn it, anyway.  
  
Standing abruptly, he caught a hold of the tree bark beside him as the branch swayed under his sudden movement. Exhaustion tugged at his aching muscles. He still hadn't recovered from the battle earlier. He probably wouldn't for a few days. He desperately needed to rest, but his turbulent thoughts wouldn't let him. Gathering his weakened strength, he sprang for the next tree, and the next. The wind of his passage ruffled the sleeves of his red haori and lifted the ends of his long silver hair, but nary a whisper passed down to the ningen below.  
  
He didn't want to hear it and he didn't want to face it. He hated their pity, their concern for him. He was hanyou. He didn't need anybody.  
  
Finding a thick oak tree some distance from the others, InuYasha slumped down in the crook of a large branch. With his back against the tree bole, he let one foot dangle down into the darkness. He unbuckled the Tetsusaiga's sheath and held it protectively to him, though he still felt angry at the fang for betraying him.  
  
Why did the Tetsusaiga not transform?  
  
The thought had repeatedly whorled through his mind, over and over. If the Tetsusaiga had transformed back into the white-fired fang, he was certain he could have staved off SesshouMaru's attack, and then Kagome...  
  
Growling, he cut the thought off. He didn't want to think about the stupid girl right now. He didn't want to think about what his cold-hearted, blood-thirsty older brother was doing to the poor, innocent twit.  
  
And yet...  
  
And yet, Kagome had said she loved him. Shouted it at him, in fact, like one of her piercing arrows, calling him a stupid jerk.  
  
And he had failed her.  
  
Closing his eyes, the hanyou tried to ignore the thought, but his claws tightened on the sheath of the sword he cradled. Hot anger flared through him, making his tired muscles spasm in clenched rage. Anger at the girl, anger at his cursed youkai brother, anger at himself.  
  
He had failed her. Failed Kagome, who wore her heart on her sleeve and looked at him with such starry-eyed confidence. He had taken her belief and love for him for granted, and now that it was lost...  
  
Another thought intruded, bringing with it all the feelings of haunting self-doubt that he had always hidden and denied behind a barrier of brash anger and self-defense toward the cruel world around him. He had failed her.  
  
Just like Kikyo.  
  
Images of the dead miko swam through his mind, mixing with his memories of the strange girl from the future. They were so different from each other, and yet...so much the same. He could see what Kikyo might have been in Kagome, if her duties as a shrine priestess and guardian of the Shikon no Tama had allowed her the freedom of a normal, somewhat carefree existence.  
  
Except that Kikyo's actions of late had sent sharp daggers of doubt through the hanyou's faith. Stealing the souls of the dead to feed her own vengeance was not something his Kikyo, the Kikyo of the past, would have done. Her actions on behalf of Naraku were causing turmoil within him. He was running out of reasons to defend the vengeful miko, which, in turn, tainted his memories of his almost worshipful love of the sad-eyed priestess.  
  
But if he was bitterly honest with himself, it was his actions that had driven Kikyo to the hard, revengeful woman she had become. The betrayal of Naraku had turned them against each other, but if their love had been so trusting and pure as he desperately tried to believe, they would not have succumbed so easily to such obvious manipulation from Naraku.  
  
Sango, herself, had proven that when she had refused to kill her possessed brother.  
  
With an irritated twitch of his shoulders, InuYasha swept the bitter thoughts aside. He could only hold onto one thought, and that was that Kagome, like Kikyo before her, had been betrayed by his own failures as a hanyou. He was only half of what he could be, and only the Jewel could make him more powerful. But Naraku's power over the Jewel grew day by day, and there were times that he felt he could do nothing to stop it.  
  
But he could and would do something. He might not have been able to save Kikyo from death over fifty years ago, but he could save Kagome. Claws clenching on the cradled sheath of the Tetsusaiga, he made a bitter vow.  
  
Kagome will not suffer like Kikyo. I will save her, I swear it. 


	13. Chapter Twelve: Affected

A/N - LIME WARNING! This chapter has some limey-ness to it. WARNING!  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
Chapter Twelve (Affected)  
  
"SesshouMaru."  
  
The whisper was faint and held an edge of fear.  
  
The Taiyoukai smiled.  
  
"Miko." He inclined his head slightly, allowing the smile to disappear into cold disdain. He studied the girl for some moments, allowing the silence to stretch between them while the scent of her fear grew to dominate her own uniquely feminine scent. The girl even trembled slightly under his chill gaze.  
  
She was passingly pretty, ningen heritage notwithstanding. If counted by human standards, she was beautiful. Her black hair was the shade of the darkest night, so inky black it seemed tinted with blue in certain lights. She was small and slight, but her brief yellow shift more than allowed one to follow the promising curves beneath. The girl who he had first met three years before had blossomed in more ways then one. The task before him might not prove as distasteful as he had once believed.  
  
Something flashed in the girl's brown eyes, and the Taiyoukai was slightly taken aback as the girl jumped up, determination and foolish pride firming her delicate jaw. Somewhat intrigued, the Lord waited.  
  
"Well? What do you want? You don't expect me to sit here and make polite conversation do you?"  
  
A silver brow lifted at the girl's audacity.  
  
"You take me away from my friends, and lock me up in this stupid rock- pile for who knows how long, come in and give me the fright of my life and now you're going to stand there and say NOTHING?"  
  
The girl's fear was mingled with the scent of desperation. Pointless human bravado had her standing up to the feared Lord of the Western Lands. She was actually shaking a finger at him in her indignation. Her reactions were uncommonly intriguing. Her passionate defiance was delightfully stimulating. Was this why the half-bastard hanyou was so taken with her?  
  
As the Lord's silence drawled on, the girl stared at her pointing finger and blinked. With a little shake of her head that made her black hair swirl across her shoulders, she dropped her hand to her side. Her features were hidden a moment as she bowed her head before him. SesshouMaru waited with faint curiousity as she seemed to come to a decision. Her fleeting emotions could be read over her overly expressive face, and he found her actions slightly amusing.  
  
Thin shoulders firming, the girl looked back up at him, and glared.  
  
Glared? At him?  
  
"You're a jerk." She pronounced, eyes flashing.  
  
The Taiyoukai had her thrust against the stone wall in a flash, his hand wrapped around her throat, claws digging through the tangles of her raven hair to clench at the stoned wall behind her. Golden eyes glinted like molten lava.  
  
"You are impertinent." He growled.  
  
He could feel the rapid beat of her heart beneath his palm, and the jerking of her throat as she struggled for air. He tightened his hand minutely, and she gasped. Wide brown eyes seemed to dominate the white face, and the Taiyoukai could smell the overwhelming fear that surged and sent her trembling. Her hands had come up instinctively, and her small palms pushed at his chest futilely. The fact that she even tried to struggle was even novel. Most stupid ningen would have been like lifeless dolls, praying their last prayers and handing him their fates with fear- filled resignation.  
  
Her throat convulsed, and he released his grip just enough so that she could draw breath and speak. Again, she surprised him.  
  
"Ow."  
  
Ow?  
  
"You didn't have to hit my head like that." She whispered hoarsely, her eyes flashing with annoyance. Her small hands firmed on his chest, and she again tried to push him away. Futile move.  
  
"You are strange." He pronounced thoughtfully, staring intently into her brown eyes. His grip softened slightly as he allowed his thumb to trace along her delicate jawline. Denying the laws of nature, the girl's eyes grew wider as she realized just how close their bodies were. Amused, the Taiyoukai allowed himself to press more familiarly along the girl's small frame, crushing her against the unforgiving expanse of stone behind her.  
  
She trembled, and SesshouMaru's claws tightened reflexively. A small drop of blood welled up from where his thumb traced her jaw. The Lord stared at the drop of blood as it beaded brightly red on the white skin. He watched with fascination as a single tear fell down the pale cheek and mixed with the blood, turning it faintly pink. Feeling his inu youkai blood stirring, the Taiyoukai dipped his mouth to the cut, pressing the girl's body into the stone as she struggled helplessly.  
  
He touched the wound delicately with his tongue, allowing the healing saliva to seal the small puncture. His hand loosened from her neck and he traced her sharply defined collarbone with his fingers, careful lest he puncture the delicate flesh again. His lips tasted the side of her neck as he inhaled the strongly feminine scent of the girl.  
  
The girl had stiffened in his arms at the initial touch of his mouth against her neck, but then she forced him away from her with a surprising show of strength. Glaring at him with shock and anger, she shouted.  
  
"HENTAI!"  
  
SesshouMaru snarled, his demon blood stirring at the girl's rebellion. Golden eyes flashed with red. The ningen's defiance was even more compelling than her fear.  
  
Interesting.  
  
Again, his more logical mind asserted itself, and he stepped away from the girl. The tight control he kept over his youkai nature was harnessed once more as he stared at the girl with cool detachment.  
  
The girl had one hand clasped to her neck, where he had kissed her. Her pale cheeks were heated in a blush even as her eyes snapped at him. Her innocent outrage was almost amusing. But not enough for him to put up with her defiance.  
  
"You are growing tedious. I do not tolerate disobedience."  
  
"Disobedience?" The girl sputtered. "I am not a dog!"  
  
The Taiyoukai smiled faintly.  
  
"No, you are not." Golden eyes glinted with amusement as he turned to leave.  
  
"Pity."  
  
"Something bothers me about the demons who came after us yesterday." Miroku said thoughtfully as he tossed dirt over the dying embers of their fire.  
  
Sango paused in mid-stretch, trying to ease the kinks out of her tired muscles. "You mean, Naraku's demons?"  
  
"Yes. Naraku sent quite a few youkai at us. That in itself doesn't make sense." Miroku used the hem of his blue robes to wipe the dirt from his fingers.  
  
"Why? He's done that before." Sango continued her stretch. A muscle cramped, and she rubbed her thigh. Miroku ogled the shapely appendage appreciatively, but her returning glare made him sigh.  
  
Averting his eyes to the dusty remains of their fire, he continued. "Yes, but after InuYasha discovered how to use the Wind Scar, Naraku has become more cautious about just throwing youkai at us."  
  
"True." Sango agreed. "But then, he was helping SesshouMaru capture Kagome."  
  
"But, if I remember rightly, SesshouMaru had denied any association with Naraku." Miroku used a stick to stir the dirt, looking for any remaining embers and trying NOT to look at the beautiful taijiya, who had continued her stretching.  
  
Sango paused again. "But SesshouMaru's worked with Naraku in the past. Or so you told me. Didn't he use a human arm that Naraku had given him when he took the Tetsusaiga from InuYasha?"  
  
"Yes..." Miroku let the thought trail off, doubt written across his features.  
  
"So it can be assumed that SesshouMaru and Naraku were working together again. Naraku has become afraid of Kagome's miko powers. She nearly killed him with her sacred arrow that time at his castle, when he tricked and poisoned Koga." Sango jerked her head up suddenly as the brush parted, and InuYasha strode toward them from the forest. Concern glowed in her brown eyes for the hanyou, before she shielded her thoughts. As a warrior, she well knew that InuYasha would not appreciate her pity or concern.  
  
"SesshouMaru was working with Naraku." InuYasha bit out as he joined them.  
  
Miroku surveyed his friend with a jaundiced eye. "So you have finally decided to join us, hmm?"  
  
"Spare me, monk." The hanyou's amber eyes flashed, and Miroku held up his hand in mock defense.  
  
"Just trying to lighten the mood."  
  
"Well, I don't need it. What I need to do is go and rescue Kagome." The hanyou bit back.  
  
"You mean, WE need to go and rescue Kagome." Sango replied quietly, determination lacing her words. The hanyou glared at the slayer for a minute. Sango met his glare with a level one of her own. Unreadable emotions sparked through the hanyou's fiery amber eyes before he nodded sharply, signifying his agreement.  
  
InuYasha unhooked the sheath of the Tetsusaiga from his side and, in one graceful motion, sat cross-legged next to the amused houshi. "Fine. We will ALL go and find Kagome."  
  
"So..." Miroku passed a glance between the two warriors. "Do you even know where to start looking?"  
  
InuYasha snorted. "Of course."  
  
"SesshouMaru is Lord of the Western Lands." Sango said, lost in thought. She ignored InuYasha's growl. "I do not know where his castle lies, but I know where his lands..."  
  
"I know where it is." InuYasha cut her off. Sango looked at him, her brown eyes unreadable, but she nodded slowly. InuYasha must have spent some time in his younger life at the castle of his youkai father.  
  
"Yes. I understand."  
  
InuYasha flashed her a quelling glare, and shrugged his tense shoulders. A clawed hand clenched at the hilt of his sword.  
  
Miroku drummed his fingers on the haft of his staff, making the rings chime faintly. The sound made the taijiya and hanyou quit staring at each other and fix their attention on him. "What I want to know, is whether or not Naraku will try and interfere."  
  
"Probably." InuYasha shrugged, uncaring.  
  
Miroku smiled sourly. "Good enough for you, InuYasha, but those youkai of Naraku's were pretty tough."  
  
"Not all of them were Naraku's." InuYasha growled. "Those Ash-demons are SesshouMaru's minions."  
  
"What?" Shock flashed in Sango's eyes.  
  
"I didn't remember at first." InuYasha said. "But my father defeated them a long time ago." A clawed hand waved away the tale as unimportant. "He took them as his own servants, and now they are one tribe of a few who serve my stupid brother."  
  
"So that fire youkai who first attacked us by the Bone-Eater's well was a servant of SesshouMaru?" Miroku rubbed his chin thoughtfully, his blue eyes dark with the implications of that thought.  
  
"Meaning that SesshouMaru has been planning this for a while." Sango finished grimly. Her own hand sought her sword hilt. The leather bindings were rubbed shiny with long familiarity.  
  
InuYasha stood up with an impatient scowl. "All this talk is getting us nowhere. Come on. Where are Shippo and Kirara?"  
  
"In the woods." Miroku stood as well, mentally groaning as his tired muscles flexed and his ankle cracked annoyingly with the sudden movement. The friends should really stop and rest for a whole day, allowing their wounds to heal and bodies to rest. But they couldn't waste any more time in trying to rescue Kagome. "I made him go and fetch water for us. He's the one most affected by Kagome's abduction, and I thought he should be kept busy so he won't think about it."  
  
The amber glare sent his way made the houshi blink. "Er...well...ahem." He turned to Sango, extending a helpful hand.  
  
The taijiya ignored the monk's assistance, and got to her feet in a fluid, graceful motion. No joint-popping for her, Miroku noted sourly. Maybe he should ask her about the stretching she did every morning. She certainly wasn't moving like she was as tense or tired as he was. His sour look turned appreciative as the girl leaned over to pull the strap of her Hiraikotsu up. With a practiced flick of her wrist, she settled the towering boned boomerang over her shoulder.  
  
A mewl of greeting from the neko alerted them to the emergence of Kirara and Shippo from the forest. Shippo hauled two full water casks after him, the leather straps dragging unheedingly in the dirt. The little fox looked defeated and lost, his motions mechanical and withdrawn. Even his furry orange tail drooped and dragged in the dust behind him. He was affected by Kagome's loss more than anyone.  
  
"Let's go."  
  
The houshi glanced at the departing hanyou's growl.  
  
And then again, maybe not. 


	14. Chapter Thirteen: To Be Safe

A/N: Thank you for letting me know about the double chapters! When I realized it, the system was down, being updated. Thank you very much for all the reviews and support, I really appreciate it! Special thanks to Pallas Athena on A Single Spark (NC17 rated version is on both 'Spark and adultff.net) for her insights on InuYasha and Kagura. If anyone wants me to add them to an update mailing list, let me know, and any and all criticisms, ideas, insprirations, even flames are welcome!  


Symbols '...' equal thoughts

  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
Chapter Thirteen (To Be Safe)  
  
An overwhelmingly earthy smell assaulted the woman's nose as she stirred restlessly. A shudder went over the white body as a dull throb of pain shot through her. Full lips tightened into a grimace, and Kagura let out her breath with a hiss.  
  
"Here, now, don't move." A gruff voice growled at her, and the wind youkai tried to shy away as a callused palm tightened on her shoulder.  
  
"No..." She breathed, hating herself for adding, "Please..."  
  
Claws dug, not ungently, into her shoulder and she stilled, shivering. Lashes fluttered on the pale cheek as she tried to open her eyes.  
  
"Rest easy now." The voice rumbled, and someone---something---whined.  
  
Whined?  
  
Kagura tried to open her eyes, but her lids felt too heavy. A hot, panting breath roamed over her face, and a cold, wet nose sniffed in her ear. She twitched in reaction.  
  
"Get on, now, you mangy mutt!" The raised voice made her delicate ears ring. Another whine and a scrabble of claws clicking on stone signaled the beast's departure.  
  
'Where am I?'  
  
The wind youkai tried to remember what about the scent that thickly surrounded her should make her feel tense and wary. Before she could open her eyes, a cool, damp cloth was placed over them by her rough-handed caretaker.  
  
"You should rest, woman." The voice rumbled. "You've not healed as quickly as you should."  
  
Kagura could not rest, had never been able to rest. Fear twisted in her belly, and she tried vainly to move exhausted limbs. She ignored the darkness over her eyes, and tried to extend her senses around her. She rested on fur hides---part of the earthy scent came from the mustiness of them. She could feel the softness of a simple yukata against her tender skin, and the heavy weight and warmth of more furs covering her. Emerging awareness sharpened her hearing---and the pain.  
  
She hurt everywhere. Dull throbs of her heartbeat sent tingles down her arms and legs. For a moment, she ignored the heady pain and focused on the simple wonder that she could feel her own heart beating in her own body.  
  
'Naraku...'  
  
Horrific memories had her stiffen and cry out weakly.  
  
"Here, now, what's this?" The voice grumbled again. "Another nightmare?" The furs were drawn back, and Kagura shivered involuntarily as her yukata was loosened. The callused hand squeezed her shoulder in reassurance, and the voice was gruff with kindness. "Here, now, girl, it will be all right. You are in pain from your wounds. No need to worry. I just need to put some numbing salve on your burns. Don't worry now."  
  
Soothing lotion was rubbed over her skin with careful gentleness. Kagura relaxed a little under the ministrations, but she was still worried. Who was caring for her? Where was she that someone WOULD care for her?  
  
The voice rumbled on, as if the owner thought she might be more relaxed and calm by hearing his gruff speech. "Poor thing. Someone hurt you bad. Don't worry, now. You're youkai, and you'll heal all right. It just takes time, girl. Don't worry. You'll be beautiful again."  
  
'Beautiful...'  
  
Naraku's mocking voice filled her mind, as the dark hanyou stared down at her broken body with lust turning the red eyes into glowing coals. Kagura gasped in fright at the awful memory. She tried to move away from the clawed hands that reached for her, and the sharp torture of pain that would follow. The claws clamped on her shoulders, and she moaned feebly, tears falling down her ashen cheeks.  
  
"Here now, girl." The gruff voice was filled with care. "Don't worry, now. Easy, girl. Easy. You're safe, girl. You're safe. No one here will hurt you."  
  
The longing of the thought tumbled through the wind youkai's exhausted mind as darkness claimed her once more.  
  
'Oh...to be safe...'  
  
  
Kagome sunk down onto the pile of pillows as the wooden door thudded shut behind the disappearing Taiyoukai. She felt weak and uncertain, and more afraid than she had ever been in her whole life.  
  
'What is he thinking? What does he want?'  
  
Her confused thoughts tumbled through her mind, circling like mad dogs.  
  
'Mad dogs.'  
  
Shuddering, she curled her legs under her, unconsciously drawing in upon herself. SesshouMaru was a mad dog. Nobody could predict what he would do, or why. His aims were always shrouded in mystery, and no one could understand his reasoning.  
  
He had tried to kill InuYasha numerous times. And her. So what was different now? Why had he captured her, and then not killed her? Could he want her for her Jewel-detecting abilities? That was the reason why so many youkai in the past had abducted her, because she could see the Shikon shards and they wanted her for their own petty ambitions of false power.  
  
But SesshouMaru was already a powerful Taiyoukai. He did not need the Jewel shards to enhance his own strength.  
  
So why her?  
  
Kagome sighed, irritated with herself. A wisp of a thought was just beyond her reach. She knew if she let herself relax, it would come to her. But she was too disturbed by the Lord's awful behavior of before.  
  
'That pervert actually licked my neck!'  
  
Indignation burned through her, and she rubbed unconsciously at the spot. Eyes widening, she realized that there was no scab there, where his razor sharp claw had pierced her skin. Softly feeling over her whole jaw for the spot, her fingertips could find nothing.  
  
But she could not deny the memory of the sharp, sudden pain, or the burning tingle afterward. She shivered. The puncture had burned like a paper cut. Ooh! Ouch!  
  
Which put her in mind of the small, tender knot forming on the back of her head, where SesshouMaru had smacked it into the wall when he nearly strangled her. The stupid youkai was as uncouth as his disdained hanyou brother when it came to man-handling her. She was really getting tired of it! The pair of them forgot their own strength.  
  
'Unless SesshouMaru had been deliberate.'  
  
That thought sent another chill down her spine. The Taiyoukai was unbelievably fast. And with his cold, expressionless face, you couldn't tell what he was going to do, which made him even more dangerous, to Kagome's way of thinking.  
  
Her musings were interrupted by the creak of the wooden door in the other room being pushed open. Kagome reacted instantly, jumping up and squashing herself against the furthest wall, behind a stout table. She instinctively grabbed for a candlestick holder. She could at least hurl the heavy, brass piece at the Taiyoukai's head.  
  
The patter of bare feet and a smothered giggle widened Kagome's eyes. Curiosity won out over caution, and she crept out of her corner. A small, black pigtail poked out from the corner of the arch that divided the two rooms. Blinking, Kagome couldn't believe it when two big brown eyes followed. The eyes blinked back at her, and then the rest of the girl emerged around the arch.  
  
"Hi." The little girl said.  
  
"Oh. Hello." Kagome was at a loss.  
  
The girl gave her a wide, gap-toothed smile. Her whole face lit up, and Kagome couldn't help but smile back. The little girl was wrapped in an expensive kimono of big blue flowers on a yellow background. The kimono was of good quality, if slightly dirty and the worse for wear. The little girl had a smudge on her cheek, and one eyebrow appeared thicker than the other due to another smudge just above it on her forehead. She was adorable.  
  
"You're pretty." The girl said, and Kagome blushed.  
  
"Uh, thank you. So are you." Kagome answered. She stepped forward, instantly liking the engaging little child. "I'm Kagome. What's your name?"  
  
"I'm Rin." The girl pronounced.  
  
"Well, Rin, it's nice to meet you." Kagome smiled.  
  
Rin dropped a faint attempt at a bow. "Pleasure." She said with a cute stutter over the word. Dropping the 'pleasantries', Rin explained seriously, "That means me too. I'm glad to meet me, too. No, wait. That means you, too. Right? It's nice to meet you, too."  
  
"Right." Kagome assured the child seriously, though her brown eyes warmed with amusement. She knelt in front of the child, so she wouldn't loom over her like an elephant.  
  
"I'm SesshouMaru-sama's ward." Rin said conversationally. Kagome's mouth fell open in frank surprise.  
  
'His ward? SesshouMaru has a human girl for a ward?'  
  
Rin giggled. "You look like Jaken, with your mouth all open like that."  
  
"Jaken?!" Kagome felt indignation rise. No way did she look like that ugly little toad!  
  
"Oh, just your face." Rin tried to make her feel better. "You're much, much prettier than Jaken. He looks like a toad."  
  
Kagome flashed her an understanding smile, full of agreement. But they were interrupted by the toad's entrance.  
  
"I do not look like a toad, you stinking little wolf-bait." The screechy voice echoed off the stone walls and proceeded the googly-eyed imp into the outer chamber. "I know you're in here, and wait until I tell Lord SesshouMaru what you've been up to. Playing in the dirt and running about the castle in places where you don't belong. Why, I can't wait to see what he does...to..." The imp paused in his tirade as he realized just whose room he was in.  
  
"Oh, my." He swept the Human-Head Staff in front of him, as if to deflect Kagome's presence. The yellow eyes bulged, and his mouth fell open. Rin giggled, flashing a bright smile at Kagome.  
  
Jaken glared at the pair of them, before turning his ire on Rin. "You stupid little moldy turnip! Just look where you've gone! You aren't supposed to be in here! Lord SesshouMaru's gonna---"  
  
Kagome stood up, bristling. She deliberately walked in front of the giggling girl, and glared at the ugly, green imp. "Don't talk to her like that! Don't call her names, you stupid toad!"  
  
Jaken's eyes narrowed into evil little slits as he thudded the end of the Staff into the floor to emphasize his squawk of outrage. "Ha! Who are you to tell me what to do? I'm Jaken, first advisor to me lord SesshouMaru, and you are just a lowly ningen brat who me lord stuck here in this moldy damp little cell. Just you wait until me lord hears about---"  
  
"Jaken."  
  
They all froze at the cold voice.  
  
The Taiyoukai stood there in all his icy, untouchable arrogance. Kagome flinched back, away from the steely golden eyes. She protectively shoved Rin behind her, backing away even as Jaken hunched his shoulders.  
  
The imp's yellow eyes swept to the right, trying to peek at his Master before he swivelled his scaly neck around. Clutching the Staff with three sweaty claws, he made a desperate plea.  
  
"Lord SesshouMaru! Am I glad to see you! That stupid turnip ran away from me, and I found her in here trying to free the prisoner. I think they were trying to escape, but, thankfully, I came along and was just about to stop---"  
  
"What?" Kagome glared at the imp, distracted. Righteous indignation at the toad's blatant lies burned through her, and she didn't even acknowledge the Taiyoukai as her eyes narrowed on the imp. "You lying little toad!"  
  
Rin giggled.  
  
"I am NOT a toad! Stupid little stinking ningen!" He turned back to face Kagome, outraged dignity causing him to shake with wrath. Gripping the Staff of Skulls, he gave an impressive growl. "We'll see what kind of toad I am when I fry you to a crisp with my Staff. No stinking ningen can talk to me that way!"  
  
"Jaken." The Taiyoukai voice was bored and emotionless, but the golden eyes were narrowed with impatience. "You will leave. Now."  
  
"B-But Master!" The imp protested at a particularly screechy volume that even made Kagome wince as it rang in her ears.  
  
"Now, Jaken." The Lord was cold. "I will deal with you later."  
  
The imp was the picture of abject defeat. Shoulders slumping, he crept slowly past the Taiyoukai, giving him hurt little looks out of the corner of his eyes. The answering golden glare made the imp grab up his robes and scoot past the Lord's side, the Staff wildly swinging as he disappeared around the white hakama.  
  
Rin giggled again from behind Kagome. Kagome had been frozen in shock at the little byplay, but she was recalled to her senses as the golden gaze was focused once more on her. Stepping backwards, further into the bedroom, she herded Rin behind her, shielding the little girl from the Taiyoukai's wrath.  
  
SesshouMaru watched her, a flicker of---something, Kagome couldn't even begin to guess what---going through the molten eyes. She didn't understand how his eyes, lighter than InuYasha's and yet so similar, could go from heated to cool so quickly. He seemed to sense her trepidation, and, although his stance did not alter, he seemed to become more casual.  
  
'Well, Shards, where am I supposed to go?' Kagome thought ruefully to herself, as she glanced around the stone walls. Boxed in, again. But there was no way that Mr. Overly Stiff and Obnoxious was going to lay a finger--- er, claw---on that sweet little girl as long as she was around!  
  
"Rin." The voice was cool, but the little girl perked up.  
  
"SesshouMaru-sama." She was actually grinning at him, giving him the same light-up-the-room smile as she had given Kagome. Kagome couldn't believe her eyes. The girl, who had been hugging the back of Kagome's leg, inched past. Kagome made a swooping grab for the blue-blossomed yellow kimono, but the girl was slippery as a fish, and ran to the Lord with a little skipping dance. She stopped in front of the white-robed Taiyoukai, who towered above her like some severe guardian angel and gave him a cheeky grin.  
  
"I've missed you, SesshouMaru-sama."  
  
Kagome blinked.  
  
"You're dirty." The Lord said coolly.  
  
A small foot circled the floor as the girl looked down and clasped her hands in front of her.  
  
"You need a bath." The girl looked back up, eyes trusting. "See to it."  
  
"Yes, my lord!" Rin turned back to give Kagome an airy wave, and then skipped out of the room. Kagome watched her incredulously. Did she really just see all that?  
  
"Miko."  
  
'Uh-oh.' 


	15. Chapter Fourteen: Spiced Sake

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  


Symbols '...' equal thoughts.

  
  
Chapter Fourteen (Spiced Sake)  
  
"You will dine with me."  
  
'What?' Kagome stared at the Taiyoukai with incredulous eyes, hardly believing her own ears.  
  
"Come." The Taiyoukai turned his back to her, and walked away. Long silver-white hair hung down his back like a waterfall to his knees. The similarity of the long tresses to a certain hanyou's had Kagome's heart clenching. The Taiyoukai paused at the doorway to her rooms. He did not turn, but his voice snapped back like a whip.  
  
"Now."  
  
Before she knew what she was doing, Kagome's legs were carrying her after the cold Lord. With a fatalistic shrug, the girl followed the inu youkai out of her rooms. Her brief spurt of joy at finally being out of the stupid stone walls was side-laid by her recognition of one of the demons who silently waited for her to leave.  
  
"An Ash-demon!" She blinked in surprise, hesitating nervously. The fire youkai's pink eyes were empty and mild, having none of the flickering red flames she had seen in the ones who had attacked them when SesshouMaru had kidnaped her.  
  
The Taiyoukai was there in a heart's beat, his claws clenched on her shoulder. Kagome let out a muffled yelp as the grip tightened. "I said come." The voice was icy with impatience. He gave her a push that sent her awkwardly spinning in front of him down the narrow hall.  
  
Kagome spun back around, bristling. "Hey! I'm not a dog---"  
  
"Yes." The Taiyoukai's golden eyes suddenly glinted with amusement. "I know."  
  
Kagome's mouth fell open. This guy was really weird! Cold and terrifying one minute, almost smiling the next! She didn't know whether he was coming or going. How was she to deal with someone like that?  
  
The amusement died, and the Taiyoukai gestured sharply for her to proceed him. Kagome gave him a look of pure exasperation, and spun on her heel. Showing her annoyance with stiff back and stomping steps, she marched down the narrow hall. But she had to stop as the stone walls opened into a four-way intersection. Letting out a frustrated sigh, she turned her head back at the Lord.  
  
To find him standing right behind her.  
  
Kagome shied away, and the Taiyoukai's hand whipped out to grab her arm. His sharp claws grazed her skin in a tight grip, but they did not pierce. Her brown eyes sparked with helpless anger, but no reaction showed on the arrogantly cold face.  
  
"I will lead you." The Taiyoukai brushed past her, his furry tail tickling her in passing, and yanked her arm after him. Kagome had to scurry awkwardly at his quick pace. The Taiyoukai ignored her stumbling steps and continued on like a charging bull, dragging her after him. Kagome soon lost any idea of where she was with all the twists and turns the Lord pulled her through. Every stone passage looked the same, illuminated with a faint blue-white light that had no source she could detect.  
  
SesshouMaru let go of her arm when they turned into a wide arch. He proceeded into the long room while Kagome gaped in the doorway.  
  
The room was HUGE. Stone arches curved along the outer walls and were lost into dimness above. Narrowly arched windows, hung up high, let in the weak light of a clouded sunset, adding faint hints of gold and pink to the banners and tapestries that covered the walls. Weapons and armor of every style and sort were scattered around the grand hall. She recognized a few pieces, but could not place most of them. She eyed the various items in awe. She could recognize a few pieces, such as armor from Midoriko's time and the glinting plate mail such as a British knight might wear. The curved edge of a Turkish scimitar gleamed faintly from one wall, while the huge stone blade of a Grecian axe, fully twelve feet in height, leaned in one corner. Weapons and armor of every size and description, some too small for even a child to hold, some large enough for only the giants of legend to grasp with ease.  
  
The Lord waited with infinite patience for her to stop gawking. Wide-eyed, Kagome blinked at him. "Wow."  
  
A silver brow arched at her.  
  
Kagome waved a hand airily around her as she stepped further into the room. She made her way over to a small table that held bottles and sacks of all kinds. A tall bow, made of blond wood smoothed faintly golden by time and use, leaned against a suit of bit-linked armor. Touching the curve of the bow, Kagome trailed her fingers over the wood.  
  
"An English long bow..." She breathed.  
  
"You know it?" The Taiyoukai's voice broke her reverie. Kagome shrugged, and went to stare at the capped jars that littered the table top. Sharp scents made her wrinkle her nose.  
  
"What's all that?" She asked curiously, hand extended toward the table.  
  
The demented demon actually smiled. "Poison."  
  
Hastily snatching her hand back, Kagome hugged herself.  
  
"Come." The Taiyoukai walked past her, further into the long room. "You will eat."  
  
Kagome warily followed him, her fears surging. Suddenly cold, she shivered and avoided looking at all the wickedly sharp edges of all that weaponry. She followed the tall white form to the other end of the room, where a raised dais held a traditionally low Japanese table. Beautiful carvings edged the wood, and she was startled to see that a place was already set for her on one end.  
  
SesshouMaru settled himself at the other end with fluid grace. When Kagome paused, uncertain, the Taiyoukai gave her a sharp gesture to seat herself. Kagome knelt and stared at the steaming dishes before her. The food smelled delicious, and her stomach grumbled in hunger. Kagome blushed.  
  
"You will eat." The Lord repeated.  
  
"Er...what about you?" Kagome eyed the empty space in front of him.  
  
"I do not eat human food." The Lord said simply.  
  
"Oh." Kagome made a faint movement at the steaming white cup before her, then stopped to glare at the youkai who watched her steadily out of unreadable golden eyes. "You're just going to sit there and watch me?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Giving SesshouMaru an exasperated look, Kagome deliberately picked up the eggshell porcelain, her fingers warming at the touch. Holding the cup to her mouth, she deliberately took a long swallow.  
  
And nearly choked as fire poured down her throat.  
  
"Eyah!" She gasped, blindly waving the delicate cup around. The Taiyoukai was there in a flash, a furry strength holding her back up even as a clawed hand snatched the cup from her fingers. His tail tickled her sides even as it tightened to support her coughing frame.  
  
Regaining her composure, Kagome glared at the steady yellow gaze. "That was sake!"  
  
The Taiyoukai's tail unfurled and he pushed the cup back toward her. "Eat. Drink." He leaned back, his manner distant and cold.  
  
Kagome gave him a sour look. Ignoring his nearness, she deliberately avoided the warmed cup of sake and picked up a steaming bowl. Grasping the ornately carved chopsticks, she ate slowly. The sumptuous delicacies soon overcame her uneasiness, and she was polishing off the setting, feeling sleepily full and deceptively contented.  
  
And thirsty.  
  
"You don't have any tea, do you?" She asked, eyes wide with feigned innocense.  
  
Amusement glinted in the golden eyes. "No."  
  
"Oh." She contemplated the white porcelain, which was still surprisingly warm. Thirst won out over caution, and she picked up the cup. Warily sipping at the warmed liquid, she was surprised to find that the fire had been reduced to a warm glow. It slid over her tongue like silk, and honeyed its way down her throat to settle in her belly in a pool of glowing warmth.  
  
She couldn't seem to slack her thirst, and the cup seemed to hold much more than it was supposed to. Her judicious sips turned into a steady draft as she greedily swallowed the sweet nectar. A faint aroma of flowers and honey wafted toward her nose, and she felt relaxed and almost easy as the liquid heat suffused her being. Eyes closing with contentment, she tilted her head back and drank more of the wonderful ambrosia.  
  
She was almost sad when a white-clawed hand covered hers and took the cup from her relaxed fingers. A mew of protest was interrupted by a hiccup.  
  
Giggling, Kagome's hand covered her mouth as she blushed. She blinked sleepily at the intensely golden gaze that trapped her own brown eyes. Befuddled and amused, she gave the golden eyes a soft smile.  
  
  
SesshouMaru was surprised at how much the spiced sake had affected the girl. He frowned faintly as the ningen giggled again. Perhaps he had used too much of the special potion. He had not been certain of its effects on ningen, and had erred on the side of caution. But still it seemed as if he had used too much. The girl was pliant, yes, but almost lethargic. He sniffed delicately. The girl's fear and anger were silenced, and a warmer smell of happy contentment seemed to flow through his delicate nostrils.  
  
'Intriguing scent.'  
  
He was somewhat surprised by his reaction to her changing fragrance. He knew that the girl already smelled much better than most ningen, that she kept herself as clean as the fastidious Lord could wish.  
  
Another giggle broke through the Taiyoukai's thoughts, and he watched silently as the girl stared at her own small hand, flexing the fingers with bemused fascination.  
  
"Miko." He said coldly. Warm brown eyes rose and she smiled innocently. The Taiyoukai used his claws to hold the small, firm chin in his hand. The girl leaned into his fingers and closed her eyes with a contented sigh. A raven lock fell forward to rest on her cheek.  
  
He could claim her then and there with ease. A surge of response flared the inu youkai blood that flowed through his veins, and his eyes bled with hinted passion. Nostrils flaring, he sniffed for the female's arousal, and found its delicate trace among the innocence of happy contentment and warmth.  
  
The innocense stopped him. There would be more than enough time for that later. First, he wanted to ask the strange miko questions only she could answer.  
  
A faint whisper of sound made him turn his head sharply to the rear of the great hall. Removing his claws from the girl's delicate jaw, he waited stoically for the approach of his silent servants. The minions bowed, and quickly removed the girl's dishes. The Taiyoukai stood up, and dipped his hands into the perfumed water offered by a bowing female. He glanced at the ningen girl, who watched the silent youkai with bemusement.  
  
Quickly determining the interview would be better conducted in his own rooms, SesshouMaru strode to the girl's side. She looked up at him with sleepy brown eyes, a faint smile on her lips. The Lord leaned down, and gathered the small body in his arm. His tail unfurled and wrapped over the girl's legs and waist, supporting her slight weight. She radiated warmth, belying the coolness of when he had first held her like this, taunting his hanyou brother with his successful capture of the woman. The girl was not at all like the miko corpse who was his half-bastard brother's first love, even though the two could be twins in appearance. That likeness would be the first of many questions she would answer him.  
  
The girl giggled at the touch of his tail, and SesshouMaru looked at her with curious detachment. The girl snuggled in his arms, and laid a small hand against his haori. He could feel the warm pressure through the white cloth covering his chest and allowed his fangs to gleam momentarily in a smile.  
  
"Whatcha looking at?"  
  
Ginta nearly jumped at the loud voice. Turning to glare at his wolf- brother, he held a clawed finger to his lips. He made a loud shushing noise, conspicuous in its volume.  
  
The youkai below them stiffened, and sunk below the waters of the lake. Narrowed red eyes scanned the bank as ripples from her quick movement scattered over the water.  
  
"Now you've done it!" Ginta growled, glancing at the defensive woman who bathed in the lake below.  
  
Hokkaku, eyes wide, surveyed the lake. "Oh."  
  
Ginta smacked him in the back of his shaved head. "Stupid whelp!"  
  
"OW!"  
  
"Who is there?" The female youkai said, eyes rubied with anger. "Show yourself!"  
  
Flushing, both wolf demons emerged from the scratchy underbrush. They stood like naughty children, eyes cast down, trying not to peek at the white skin as the woman emerged from the water and clothed herself with a simple white yukata.  
  
"Who are you?" The woman demanded sharply. Both youkai looked up, eyes widening as the white cloth clung to the damp curves, leaving little to the imagination.  
  
"You're really pretty." Hokkaku said ingeniously.  
  
Ginta smacked him in the head again, glaring at his wolf-brother's stupidity.  
  
"Ow! What did you do that for?" Hokkaku glared back, rubbing his head.  
  
"Stupid!" Ginta growled.  
  
An impatient sigh interrupted their bickering, and the wolf demons flushed again. Ginta tried to straighten his slight shoulders, and thumped himself on his chest with verbosity. "I'm Ginta. And this," He motioned sourly at his brother, "this idiot is Hokkaku."  
  
"I am not an idiot, Ginta!" Hokkaku protested hotly.  
  
"What are you doing here?" The demand cut through their bickering like a knife.  
  
"Er, uh..." Now it was Ginta's turn to stammer as he groped for an explanation.  
  
"We wanted to see if you were all right. Or, I mean, fine." Hokkaku replied, red flaming his cheeks. "We were the ones who found you, my lady, and Hideki wouldn't let us see you. He said we were two impetuous whelps who didn't have any business staring at a fine lady like yourself...uh...umm...er..."  
  
"You found me?" Damp black hair tumbled over the youkai's curves in rippling waves. The red eyes were deeply lashed, and her skin was pale, except for the darkly purple scar that marred one delicate cheek.  
  
"Yes. I did." Ginta said eagerly. At his brother's glare, the wolf youkai amended hastily, "I mean, we did. Hokkaku and I. Our wolves led us to you. And we rescued you."  
  
"Why?"  
  
The woman's sharp question surprised both youkai.  
  
"Why?" Hokkaku repeated, blinking. "Because you were hurt."  
  
"And wounded." Ginta quickly added.  
  
Not to be outdone by his brother, Hokkaku continued. "Wounded badly."  
  
The female youkai regarded the wolf-brothers for a long, silent moment until they twitched nervously under that ruby gaze.  
  
"I thank you." The woman said stiffly.  
  
"Oh, no problem!" Ginta smiled stupidly, instantly smitten. It was not every day that a beautiful youkai woman came striding...well, carried...into their caverns.  
  
"Sure." Hokkaku flushed. "Anytime, my lady."  
  
"My name is K..." The woman paused. "Ura."  
  
"Ura?" Ginta's brow furrowed at the strange name.  
  
The woman closed her eyes with strain. "No...not Ura...Yura. Yes, Yura."  
  
"Yura." The wolf-brothers blinked at each other, trying to remember where they had heard that name before. Shrugging, they dismissed it.  
  
Hokkaku gave a bad imitation of a sweeping bow. "Well, my lady Yura, may I be so honored as to escort you back to your cave?"  
  
Ginta waited for the precise moment and pushed the spiky-haired wolf-brother off balance. Hokkaku fell on his face in the dirt. Ginta smiled toothily and bowed. "May I, my lady?"  
  
"I can make my own way." The woman was suddenly cold and distant.  
  
"Oh, please?" Hokkaku spat out a mouthful of dead leaves. The lady gave him a long, silent look, as if trying to measure his motives. Three wolves emerged from the brush, whining a greeting. One made a beeline for Hokkaku, and a long, pink tongue lolled out.  
  
"Don't you dare lick me you stinking cur!" Hokkaku sat up, pushing the wolf away.  
  
A short laugh made the wolf demons grin at the beautiful woman. The woman's laughter died, and she looked startled that she had even dared to laugh. A surprised frown wrinkled the white brow.  
  
Right then and there, both wolf-brothers vowed silently that they would make the tense and serious lady have more cause to laugh. Such a beautiful, if scarred, youkai deserved to laugh. 


	16. Chapter Fifteen: Angel Bite

WARNING: This is a marking scene. If you know what that entails, fangs and all, and like it, read on, if not, AVOID. The rest of the story can be read without it.  
  
Now that that's over, I do want to give special thanks to Pallas Athena for her inspirations and to Lady Death for her frosted flakes, they're g-g- great! Also, thank you everyone for reviewing. I really do appreciate it! It gives me the WAFF's, and I will try to answer any questions here, as ff.net won't let me email people replies back. THANK YOU AGAIN!  
  
Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
Chapter Fifteen (Angel Bite)  
  
Kagome giggled as a yellowy gold tassel tickled her nose. Rubbing her cheek on a soft, velvety cushion, she felt like a warm puddle of honey pooling over the pillows. A tangle of black hair distracted her, and she played with it bemusedly.  
  
"Miko."  
  
The stern voice intruded, and Kagome smiled at the white angel.  
  
'He's beautiful...'  
  
The thought warmed her.  
  
'Such pretty eyes.'  
  
The golden eyes blinked, and Kagome giggled. Did she really speak that thought aloud? Her mind seemed distant and drifting on the current of warmth that flowed through her body.  
  
"Pay attention."  
  
Kagome closed her eyes and hummed a light tune popular in her own time. She pictured her brother Sota, who had smirked at the sappy love song. For some reason, she didn't have any of the heart-aching pain at his memory.  
  
'Sota...how I miss you.'  
  
"Who is this Sota?"  
  
Who was Sota? Sota was her brother. And Mom. And Grandpa. And Buyo.  
  
"Buyo?"  
  
The stern voice intruded again, and Kagome tried to feel some irritation, but she still drifted on the soothing warm waters. 'He's my cat.'  
  
"The neko youkai?"  
  
Kagome giggled. She could just imagine fat Buyo growing as big as Kirara, with long fangs and flaming feet! Could he even get up in the air?  
  
"Where is your family?"  
  
The sadness was distant and submerged in fond memories as the hazy warmth took the pain away. 'The shrine and the God's tree. Where I saw InuYasha for the first time.'  
  
"I do not care how you met my brother."  
  
The voice was so cold and biting. Really, he should be nicer to his brother. InuYasha needed all the love he could get...he had had so little as a child. Poor InuYasha...  
  
"Enough. Answer the question."  
  
'What question?'  
  
"Where is your family? Where do you live?"  
  
Pictures of her own time in the modern age flashed through the girl's mind. Tokyo, with its busy streets and bustling people. Her friends and classes. The outrageous lies her grandfather made up to excuse her from school, and the math homework she loathed and yet struggled with...she hated to lose a battle...even a worthless battle like Algebra...  
  
"Where is this place?" The voice intruded again.  
  
Kagome giggled. 'Don't you mean when? When is this place?'  
  
In the future...  
  
The voice showed a faint astonishment. "The future?"  
  
'Five hundred years in the future...and I can never go back.'  
  
"Why?"  
  
'The well...the dry well was burned. Burned to ash by the ash-demon.' Kagome giggled again, and then sighed. Regret tinged her memories, and then was swept away by the warmth that enfolded her soul.  
  
The voice was silent for a long time, and Kagome yawned sleepily, nestling into the soft pillows around her. But the voice finally returned, and prodded her awake, and she reluctantly opened soft brown eyes to gaze dreamily at the white angel.  
  
'So tall and commanding.'  
  
"Enough. You do not flatter me."  
  
What was he saying? Was he denying his unearthly beauty? Foolish angel.  
  
Fangs gleamed in a wickedly beautiful smile. "I am not an angel, miko."  
  
'Miko. That is not me. That is Kikyo.'  
  
"Is Kikyo your sister?"  
  
Kagome shook her head in negation. Never! The surge of denial drowned again in the honeyed warmth.  
  
"Who is she to you?"  
  
'My heart break.' The girl thought sadly. 'He loves her...'  
  
"Why do you look like each other?" The voice was cool and distant.  
  
'They say I am her reincarnation. Who are they?' The wisp of thought drifted past her bemused mind and flowed away.  
  
"You are strong. You see the shards of the Shikon no Tama. Some say you once possessed it, like Kikyo."  
  
'It was in my body...' The faintly pink glow of the Jewel, whole and unbroken, flared through her mind. Memories of the awful centipede demon danced over the warm haze that surrounded her, and Kagome slid fingers over her small hip, where the scar of the demon's fangs was but a white, star- shaped reminder. That was when she had freed InuYasha from the God's Tree, and changed her life forever. Not when she was pulled through the well. But when she had freed InuYasha. Then she had started to live and feel and know...  
  
"Enough." The voice was icy now, and Kagome wanted to protest its very coldness. But the thoughts swirled away in the honeyed warmth that surrounded her. She yawned again, and nestled deeper into the pillows.  
  
The girl was quickly falling into somnolence. He had gained as much information as he could for now. If he wanted to mark her, then he had to do it soon.  
  
Kneeling down beside the girl, SesshouMaru brushed back a tangled lock of raven hair that had fallen over her cheek. He used a single claw to trace the line of her jaw to the white column of her neck. He could feel the heartbeat throb its life-giving song under his finger, and his eyes flashed red for a moment, his own blood stirred by the dance.  
  
Deep brown eyes opened and regarded him softly. "Angel..." The girl murmured, and the Taiyoukai stiffened, his cooler side taking hold. Why the girl insisted on calling him such a repellent acronym...  
  
The girl yawned innocently. "I'm tired..." Her eyes closed.  
  
SesshouMaru growled softly, but the girl didn't stir.  
  
Quickly, the Lord pulled off the girl's wispy garments. The soft yellow shift was no match for his claws, and it parted easily with a faint ripping sound. He allowed her to keep the strange bindings she wore over her breasts and hips, they held no interest for him---at least not now. He stared at the young flesh with faint curiousity. He had rarely seen a ningen woman thus attired and had the leisure to simply look at her.  
  
The girl shivered as chilled goose bumps littered her bare arms, making the small, delicate hairs stand on end. SesshouMaru brushed the tiny hairs, marveling as they stood up once again under his claws. He had not known that ningen had hair. Sparse, yes, and barely adequate to warm them. Still, it was there.  
  
A small hand brushed his silver-white hair, which had spilled over the girl's legs as he leaned over her, studying her intently. SesshouMaru captured the hand, and looked at the small, feeble claws that decorated the end. Feeble weapons, barely adequate.  
  
The girl stirred restlessly, and SesshouMaru dropped her small hand. The girl tried to turn and nestle deeper into the pillows of his sitting dais, and he stopped her with a strong hand on her hip. He ignored the girl's murmured protest, and studied the white, star-shaped mark on her hip that glinted in the firelight between the grip of his long fingers. The girl had been bitten before, and quite deeply. Was this the mark she had told him about, from the centipede demon who had first attacked her? He used his thumb to trace part of the scar, and a muffled giggle froze him in impatience.  
  
Her brown eyes were open again, and looked at him with befuddled amusement. "Tickles..."  
  
'Enough of this.' The Taiyoukai drew back, away from the intriguing miko. The girl let out a sleepy sigh, and closed her eyes again, lashes fluttering on white cheeks. 'I must mark her, and now.'  
  
His tail unfurled even as he reached a strong hand to pull the limp body closer to him. His tail firmly wrapped around the girl's slender waist, and her raven locks fell in a long tangle over his arm. The girl's blood was heated, and her breath exhaled softly on his chest as he cradled her close to him. Her small left hand with its inadequate claws came to rest on his chest and tangle into the white fabric of his haori. Wrapping his tail more firmly around the girl's waist and legs, SesshouMaru used his claws to comb the dark tendrils free from her neck and shoulder.  
  
He was taken aback at the faintly pink marks on her shoulders. Something had clung to her there, sharp claws had pierced the delicate skin. His half-bastard brother had been inept at protecting the little miko. The girl was far stronger than he had realized, to have survived so many battles.  
  
He followed the round of her shoulder to the curve of her neck. The dreaming girl laid her cheek on his upper arm, giving him easier access to the hollow of her neck, where her heartbeat sang again to his own demon blood.  
  
This time, the Lord allowed his inu youkai blood to stir unchecked. He stared at the quick flutter of her throat as she breathed, felt the steady, strong pulse of her life-blood as it sang to him. Intense golden eyes bled red, and he could feel his fangs growing longer as the hunger took hold.  
  
Still, he was Taiyoukai, and he reined in the furious need to just plunge his fangs into the delicate female held tightly to him. He would only mark her, not kill. The faint bitterness of his poison edged his gleaming fangs, and he deliberately controlled the amount. The girl was only human, after all, and she would not survive more than the tiniest bit of his poisoned fangs. Lips curling back from his sharp canines, he bent his mouth to the exposed expanse of her neck.  
  
Using the sharpened tip of his left fang, he pierced the white skin with the barest scratch, allowing mere drops of his greenly glowing poison to trail the half-circle mark he made with his fangs. The girl hissed in her breath sharply, and he felt the small body convulse in his arms as the pain seeped through the hazy remains of the spiced sake. A muffled gasp against his arm, and the girl struggled helplessly against him.  
  
Now. Now he could unleash his youkai blood.  
  
A roaring filled his ears, and the Taiyoukai's eyes glowed blood as he snarled at the struggling girl. He allowed the poison to dissipate from his fangs, and he curled his tail tighter around the girl, moving it up to wrap around her arms, holding her immobile. Fangs gleaming, he sought her neck with his lips. Finding the ends of his poison-created crescent mark, he breathed in the female's fear for a blissful second before plunging his fangs into her neck.  
  
A scream echoed in his ears, making him wince, but the Taiyoukai held onto the girl with a firm grip. The sharp metallic warmth of blood filled his mouth, and he felt the stirring of his soul answer the beat of the girl's strong pulse. Gripping the struggling body tighter, he lapped at the life-giving warmth, allowing his healing saliva to coat the wounds even as he licked up the delicious taste of her.  
  
Weak claws scrabbled at his chest, and SesshouMaru growled in answer. A sharp pain erupted from where the girl's small hand brushed his chest, and cut through the haze of his youkai desire. Speedily releasing the girl, the Taiyoukai stepped back, cold anger blending with the roar of his stirred inu blood. The scorched remains of his haori and the burn mark that marred his skin beneath made him narrow his eyes angrily on the girl.  
  
The pink glow of sacred energy was dying in the girl's small hand even as she curled in upon herself in the cushions, whimpering even as healing darkness took her. The Taiyoukai wiped away the smear of her blood that edged his chin, and regarded the miko coldly, his anger at her denial leaving him icy. Eyes glinting with molten gold, he turned away, and swiftly left the room to the unconscious miko. 


	17. Chapter Sixteen: Never Forget!

A/N: Sorry about how long it took me to update. I made it up with a whole bunch of new chapters! I just needed to work the bugs out and revamp them. Special thanks to Pallas Athena and Wicca, who both asked for clarification, and to Feminafures, who's story "Hot Like Fire" is inspiring. (NC17 Rating! On S'Spark, only read if you are old enough please!) Mucho gracias to Shinigama Clara, whose ideas on/for Kagura are proving VERY helpful! Thank you again for all the reviews, and I have finally put my mailing list together. If anyone else wants on, let me know!  
  
Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
Chapter Sixteen (Never Forget!)  
  
Sango tensed even before she felt the rumble of Kirara's growl. Narrowing her eyes against the sun, she brought a hand up to shield against the brilliant glare, scanning the rocky hills below for any sign of danger.  
  
"W-What is it, Sango?" Shippo, huddled before her and clutching the neko's ruff with his small paws, squinted his green eyes against the flare of sunlight as the sun passed from behind a cloud.  
  
"You see something?" Miroku's voice was nearly lost in the howl of the wind as it passed through the flying friends.  
  
"I sense some type of demonic presence." Sango's voice was grim. Kirara's hiss answered her.  
  
"I don't feel anything..." Miroku raised his own hand to shield his eyes, scanning the rocky ground far below. Seeing nothing, he curled his palm around his mouth and called, "InuYasha!"  
  
The hanyou ran the hills below them, slightly behind the flying neko. With no helpful forest for him to jump through, he had allowed Kirara to out distance him. InuYasha gave an incredible leap, fanning his silver- white hair behind him, and allowed the sleeves of his red haori to expand like fabric wings.  
  
At Sango's urging, Kirara descended to come abreast of the gliding hanyou. "InuYasha!"  
  
"What is it?" He asked gruffly, eyes intent on the ground below, looking for a (somewhat) softer cushion to land and leap from.  
  
Kirara growled an answer.  
  
InuYasha's eyes glowed. "Youkai..."  
  
The hanyou descended to the earth, reaching for Tetsusaiga reflexively.  
  
Shippo shook his red head. "That dumb dog. We can't stop and fight a stupid demon. We have to find Kagome!"  
  
Sango patted the small shoulder even as she released the strap of her Hiraikotsu with her other hand. Miroku's hands tightened on his staff, making the rings chime. Without urging, Kirara descended closer to the small passage between two crag-faced hills. A glimpse of green forest behind the rocky hills gave a hint of the valley beyond them.  
  
"Look! There!" Miroku pointed past Sango at the green valley. Strange white lights danced over the forest.  
  
"Souls!" Sango bit out, eyes narrowing in sudden anger. 'And where there are souls...there's Kikyo. Why, oh why does she have to interfere now?'  
  
"Kikyo?" Miroku followed the thought with a grimace.  
  
"InuYasha!" Sango called out. The hanyou had leapt again, to pass through the steep hills. He did not look up at her call, but Sango could see his strong shoulders stiffen as Tetsusaiga flared to life.  
  
A long white ribbon came up from the looming forest, swirling its way toward the group. A second joined the first, and Kirara roared. An answering hiss from the white youkai swept up to them on the wind. More Soul Collectors were winding their way toward the friends.  
  
"Hiraikotsu!" Sango released her powerful boomerang, which spun toward the hissing youkai. The first two easily swirled around the weapon, but the next two were cut in half, dissolving with hinted screams that barely whispered on the wind.  
  
"Ahh! Sango! They're still coming!" Shippo cowered against Kirara's fur. The cat roared in response.  
  
"They are trying to distract us!" Miroku shouted over the wind of their passage as he swiped at a passing youkai. The white demon swirled past him, hissing its anger. Kirara bared her fangs and swept through another, allowing her flaming claws to shred the youkai into wisps.  
  
Sango braced for her returning weapon, which spun over their heads in its return, destroying another youkai in its path. More demons were streaming toward the fighting group. Miroku swiped at a hissing Soul Collector, rings jangling.  
  
Sango desperately scanned the forest below them, and saw InuYasha, feet braced and Tetsusaiga flaming white fire, disappear into the trees. "InuYasha!"  
  
........................  
  
Crashing through the trees, InuYasha barely felt the branches that clawed at his haori and broke with the weight of his descent. Bracing for the impact, he hit the leaf-littered floor, the fang bared and ready in his hands.  
  
A white Soul Collector hissed at him, ribboning between two trees and turning around, as if to summon him.  
  
"Kikyo." InuYasha whispered, his heart clenching.  
  
He kept the Tetsusaiga free, in case it was a trap of Naraku's, but rested the curved blade on his shoulder as he followed the disappearing white youkai deeper into the thick forest. The sun, so bright above, was dim and shadowed by the intertwining branches overhead. The rustle of dry leaves was the only sound as his bare feet crossed the forest floor.  
  
Rounding the edge of the tree, he came upon a small clearing, where more sunlight penetrated. A large tree, limbs forked, dominated the other side, and the beautiful woman with her long black hair streaming delicately in the breeze rested in the hollow of the branches, much as he was wont to do.  
  
"Kikyo." He said with his lips, even while his mind said the name of another.  
  
'Kagome...'  
  
The miko stretched a white-robed arm, extending a graceful hand toward the white Soul Collector who circled her. Small globes of light surrounded the tree, making her seem ethereal. Long black hair, much longer than Kagome's, fanned behind the miko and touched her cheeks. Rarely had InuYasha seen the woman with her hair unbound, and it was when he considered her the most achingly beautiful.  
  
Deep brown eyes regarded the breathless hanyou, and a small smile played over the pale lips. "InuYasha."  
  
"Kikyo." InuYasha could only say her name, his heart in his throat.  
  
"You come so quickly when I summon you." The brown eyes narrowed, the chill overwhelming the sad hopefulness he remembered from the past.  
  
InuYasha could only gaze at his former love. Memories blurred together when he stared at her, and regret for the loss of his pure-hearted miko stabbed at his soul.  
  
The soft voice turned mocking. "What do you see, InuYasha, when you stare at me? Do you see what I was, or who I am?" Kikyo straightened from her relaxed position on the tree limb, staring coldly at the hanyou. "Or do you, perhaps, see a certain girl?"  
  
"I..." InuYasha couldn't speak his true feelings. Love and pain, regret and buried hope were all twisted together inside of him when he stared at the resurrection of his dead love.  
  
"You were never eloquent." The miko sighed, eyes closing for a moment, before she gathered herself and floated down form the tree, her white and red robes rustling at the small movement. The deeply black hair, so long and silky, floated over a white cheek before settling into stillness.  
  
The cold brown eyes opened once more, and a smile that held no warmth was directed at the staring hanyou. The miko had her bow and arrows strung across her back, and the arrowheads clattered together as she stepped forward.  
  
"Kikyo." InuYasha let his sword drop to his side, and the fang flared once, and then died into the rusted, bent sword that hid its power. He felt rooted in stone as he watched the beautiful miko step closer. Her scent, the overwhelming familiarity covering the slight hint of dust and age, made his nostrils flare as he breathed her in.  
  
The miko stood in front of him, her eyes warming a bit as she raised a white hand to touch his cheek with her fingertips. The butterfly kiss of her cold fingers made the hanyou's heart tighten once more.  
  
"You are still so foolish, InuYasha." Kikyo's voice was cold and mocking, so unlike the warm love that he remembered. "Loving me, and loving her."  
  
The cold fingers brushed the white lock of his hair that fell forward. "You cannot have us both, you know."  
  
"Kikyo...I..." InuYasha's voice was warm with repressed emotion.  
  
The hand whipped back, away from him, and Kikyo stared at him with cold anger sparking her brown eyes. "Your brother, the Taiyoukai, has the girl now."  
  
InuYasha blinked. "H-How...?"  
  
The miko's cold, mocking laughter floated on the breeze and surrounded him. "How did I know? Why, it was I, who told Naraku how she might be disposed of."  
  
"Kikyo!" InuYasha's cry was full of hot protest and pain.  
  
A Soul Collector hissed in response to the hanyou, and swirled between them.  
  
"Naraku fears her. Almost as much as he fears me." The laugh was not pleasant.  
  
"Why? Why do you do this, Kikyo?" InuYasha wanted desperately to understand the cold, vengeful woman who stood before him. "She has never harmed you!"  
  
"She tries to take you away from me!" Kikyo snapped, anger shaking her cold frame. "You are mine, InuYasha! You owe me your soul, and I claim the vow you made me!"  
  
InuYasha closed his eyes against the overwhelming pain of heart break. 'What has happened to you, my Kikyo? Why are you so angry and bitter?'  
  
"I will not be denied!" Kikyo raged.  
  
Silence filled the small clearing, only broken by the miko's bitter laugh as she reined in her temper.  
  
"But I do not have to worry about that girl now, InuYasha."  
  
The hanyou's head whipped up, eyes wide amber pools in shock. "What do you mean? What has happened to Kagome? What did you do to her?" Clawed hands clenched as rage filled him.  
  
"I?" Kikyo gave him a mocking smile as she stepped back. "I have done nothing to her. But she will be useless to you now. Your brother has seen to that. He has fallen into our plans nicely. The arrogant Taiyoukai has no idea that he is as easy to manipulate as any of the poor humans he so despises."  
  
"What have you done to Kagome!" InuYasha nearly howled in rage. The bent sword in his hand flared to life in response to his anger.  
  
"It is your brother you should be angry at, InuYasha, not me." Kikyo replied, as her white youkai hissed and swirled protectively around her. The eyes were like frozen pools of muddy water.  
  
"I will rescue Kagome!" InuYasha spat the bitter vow at the dead miko as her Soul Collectors tightened their long, white forms around the body made from clay and ash.  
  
The miko's mocking laughter rang in his ears. "You are too late, InuYasha. You will find the broken remains of your foolish lover in my sister's village, where the Taiyoukai has left her." She started to rise, the Soul Collectors supporting her slight form as the lights of dead souls floated like white fireflies around her.  
  
"NO!" InuYasha roared the denial.  
  
"See what good she is to you now, InuYasha." The miko taunted, her long black hair swirling in the breeze of her departure. Her last, cold whisper sent a dagger piercing through the hanyou's leaden heart.  
  
"You are mine. Never forget!"  
  
............................  
  
Kagome wrinkled her eyes shut as a single ray of sunlight streaked across them. Groaning, she rolled over, hugging a cushion over her head, trying to cover the light in smothering darkness. How she hated mornings!  
  
Pillow tassels brushed her neck, and she sat up, yelping in pain. Suddenly wide awake, she frowned as a faint throb in her temples echoed the first stab of pain. Rubbing her temples, she caught a whiff of herself. "Eew!" Distracted, she fanned the still air in front of her. "I need a bath!"  
  
Slipping from under the thick blanket, she frowned down at herself. 'Why am I only wearing my underclothes? Where's my sun dress?'  
  
Eyes widening, she delved through hazy memories. 'Why can't I remember anything from last night?' Bringing a hand up to her mouth, she ran into the bathroom that was connected to her bedroom. There was a polished metal surface in there---the feudal version of a mirror. Her reflection was hazy and distorted, but she saw a red-purple mark on her neck. Lifting a finger to brush the wound, Kagome bit back a whimper as she touched the tender spot. Narrowing her eyes down, she could barely see the inflamed edge of a welt that ran in a half-circle along the left side of her neck.  
  
"What in all the world...?" Confusion conflicted with worry. Why could she not remember anything from after last night's weird dinner? Why was she back in her room, almost naked, with a deep scar on her neck?  
  
'That stupid dog better not have bitten me!'  
  
She frowned at the fierceness of her own thought, and then shook her head at her stupidity. 'Duh! If SesshouMaru had bitten me, I would have tooth marks, not a circular welt! Maybe I burned myself somehow...' But the thought made her uneasy and uncertain.  
  
Shrugging, she was distracted by the burble of water behind her. Turning to look at the inviting bath tub beyond her, her fingers were already undoing the clasps of her bra. "I can at least clean the cut..." She murmured almost happily as she dipped one foot in the flowing warm water.  
  
Easing herself into the water, she let out a long sigh as the warmth enfolded her. Something about the warmth around her tugged at her memories, but Kagome let the thought go as she relaxed. 'I can think about all that later...' 


	18. Chapter Seventeen: Determination

A/N: WARNING: Implied Language (bleeped out, this is only R...)  
  
Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
Chapter Seventeen (Determination)  
  
SesshouMaru contemplated the various scrolls and books that littered his study with a narrowed gaze. All the knowledge in the world was at his claw-tips, and nothing could explain what the strange miko had revealed to him the night before. His collection of literature was vast, collected over the face of both the human and youkai worlds. Started by his father centuries before, when a certain wandering flea youkai named Myoga had sparked the great lord's interest in knowledge, the scrolls, papers, and books with their leather bindings were a priceless collection of both artifacts and information.  
  
SesshouMaru had inherited his father's thirst for knowledge---it was one of the few traits that the Taiyoukai appreciated. Others, like his father's weak love for the humans---in particular, one human--- he did not.  
  
His father had been distracted by the knowledge he read in the pages of his human books and scrolls. His father had allowed the words to weaken his integrity and emotional detachment as a powerful youkai, cold contempt had turned into thoughtful contemplation, and that, among other things, had been the great inu lord's undoing.  
  
SesshouMaru would never allow himself to repeat his father's mistakes. There had been a time, soon after his father's ignoble death, that he had firmly shut the door on the knowledge contained within these walls, harshly determining that it was the insidious ideas contained within that had chipped away at his father's icy armor and allowed the great inu to weaken and turn his favor to the inconsequentially piddling ningen around them. He would not allow that corrupted impiety to entangle him as it had his father.  
  
It had taken him years to reverse the belief that it had been the knowledge itself that had corrupted his father's mind, turning the great lord against his own kind in favor of the weak ningen. Knowledge, itself, was just information. What you did with it was where the blame lay. And, as hard as it was for him to admit, his father had been weak, listening to the insidious ideologies of humanity, desiring to know more of their short, fiercely emotional existence. Their views were so limited by time. Their short life-spans gave them a strangely fascinating understanding of the world around them---so different from the unending centuries of existence that allowed youkai (at least the powerful youkai) to step back and view with an eye to the long-term. SesshouMaru would never be allured by the fierce, passionate struggles that plagued humanity's existence, he would not fall to the quest for understanding that consumed some of his youkai brethren. It was beneath him, as Taiyoukai of the West.  
  
He could appreciate the work of a fine writer, the turn of phrase from a master lyricist , the twist of words into beauty or emotion by the strokes of a poet's passion...but he did not allow them to sway his determination or to cloud his thinking with nonsensical emotions. He could appreciate and value, but not embrace.  
  
'I am distracting myself with trivia.'  
  
The Lord dropped the scroll that had lain unseen in his hands as he stared at the shelves surrounding him. The thin paper rolled in upon itself on the tabletop with a faint crackle of aged edges. He was usually not so casual with the priceless artifacts in his collection, but he was inattentive, his thoughts dwelling on the miko.  
  
He had marked her, he was certain of it. He had watched the poison of his crescent mark seep into her white skin. Normally, that would be enough. But the ningen girl was a miko, who could purify his mark from her neck, if she had had the proper training and knowledge taught to priestesses. He wanted his half-bastard brother to know, that he, SesshouMaru, had claimed InuYasha's wench as his own property. So he had ensured that his mark would remain permanent, by clenching the ends of the half-moon with his fanged bite.  
  
But the girl's denial of the marking...her unleashing of miko power that had burned through his haori and interrupted the ritual---that was unexpected. He had underestimated the miko's powers, never believing that a mere ningen might have strength enough to wound him with a mere touch.  
  
It made the girl all the more dangerous.  
  
On one level, it intrigued him, making the inu youkai blood stir within him, wanting to dominate and defeat, overwhelm and overcome this audacious female. But she was only the means to an end---the end being the utter humiliation of his bastard half-brother. Taking and marking the girl were only the first blows to InuYasha's pride.  
  
The girl was only a ningen, a pawn for him to play with. No matter the powers that lay untapped and hidden within her. The wild enigma of her potential had engaged his inquisitive mind---and still did---but he could spend years studying her, carefully peeling away the layers of her mystery, and still not solve it. What she had revealed to him last night had made him thirst for more knowledge. A girl from the future with strength enough to harm him...no matter how insignificantly...a girl that was the reincarnation of his brother's dead love...a girl who had brought the Shikon no Tama back into the existing world through her own body...  
  
The possibilities for study and contemplation were endless.  
  
But he would not be sucked in, like his father, by the desire to know more...and about a mere human. A pathetic, disgusting species not worth his time or acknowledgment.  
  
'It is a pity she is not even hanyou...'  
  
Where had that revolting notion come from? SesshouMaru growled softly, angry at his own betraying thoughts. The girl was dangerous to his integrity and purity as an inu youkai and Lord of the Western Lands.  
  
Golden eyes narrowed in chilly determination, the Lord stood up. 'Enough of this foolishness. I will not be drawn in like my father. I am Taiyoukai. I will do what I have determined to do...I will have my revenge.'  
  
..........................................  
  
"Why does Kikyo always have to come around, anyway?" Shippo asked, anger tensing his little shoulders.  
  
"Shhh." Miroku's whisper was anything but, and the silver-haired hanyou beside him turned and gave him a flat glare.  
  
"None of this helps." Sango said, strangely irritable. Miroku raised a thin brow, his blue eyes studying the taijiya thoughtfully. She had busied herself polishing the sides of her Hiraikotsu with sharp, angry motions, ignoring the rest of them as they set up a temporary camp beside the valley's forest. InuYasha had sauntered from the forest moments after the white Soul Collectors had swept off the attack on the rest of them. His expression had been angry and sorrowing by turns. He had finally revealed to the rest of them what Kikyo had said---that Kagome was not with SesshouMaru any longer, but at Kaede's.  
  
Sango crossed her arms in front of her, her stance defiant as she glared at the hanyou. InuYasha's lips thinned into a scowl as his attention was drawn back to her.  
  
"Are we going to rescue Kagome or not?" She asked bitingly.  
  
"And where should we go, Sango?" Miroku replied mildly. "Should we trust Kikyo? Who, by her own admission, planned Kagome's abduction with Naraku?"  
  
The slayer ignored him, her anger only for the hanyou.  
  
"Well?"  
  
InuYasha growled low in his throat. Sango's nostrils flared in return as her brown eyes narrowed with steeled fury.  
  
"Are you just going to sit here thinking about that damn corpse or are you going to get off your (rear) and go after Kagome?"  
  
Miroku and Shippo blinked.  
  
"Uh...Sango?" Miroku began tentatively.  
  
Kirara mewed questioningly, tails twitching, but Sango refused to take her own angry gaze from InuYasha. Shippo let out a small, choked sound, and the neko turned instead to rub the small kitsune reassuringly, batting his nose with her twin tails to distract him.  
  
InuYasha's fangs were clenched as red streaks flashed through his hotly amber eyes. "What the hell do you mean by that, (witch)?"  
  
The taijiya's katana was out of its sheath with a scrape of steel on wood, the sharp tip pointed at the hanyou's prayer-beaded neck.  
  
"Don't you ever call me (witch)." Pure steel, as sharp as her sword edge, laced the slayer's harsh command.  
  
"Sango! InuYasha!" Shippo almost wailed in the sudden stillness. Tears sparkled in his unbelieving green eyes.  
  
"Kirara, could you...um..." Miroku motioned his head toward the kitsune cub significantly, his blue eyes not leaving the furious pair. Kirara growled and transformed in a breath's moment, her fangs carefully gripping Shippo by his tail. Shippo's surprised yelp was cut off as the neko youkai took a bounding leap into the forest that darkened with coming dusk behind them.  
  
As the neko and kitsune disappeared, InuYasha's hand slowly rose to the still blade that was an inch from his neck. Molten eyes held furious brown even as his claws curled over the sharp steel. A trickle of blood from the blade dribbled down his fingers even as he yanked it out of the taijiya's strong grip. He flung it furiously from him, and stood up, claws clenching in fury. Sango glowered, a flick of her wrist freeing a small dagger from her sleeve.  
  
A staff, rings clambering discordantly, was thrust between them. Sango jerked defensively even as InuYasha growled.  
  
"Just what are you two thinking?" Miroku cast his own incensed stare between the two warriors, who suddenly looked chagrined, and wouldn't meet the others' eyes. "Have you both lost your minds?"  
  
"Sango, my beautiful one..." A faint smile accompanied the taijiya's reflexive glare. "What were you trying to prove? Why are you angry? None of this helps Kagome, you know."  
  
"I'm tired of him just sitting there mooning after Kikyo when Kagome could be hurt or dead or...or..." A shudder went through the slight frame, and the dagger fell unheeded as her arms came up to hug her sides. The slayer bowed her head to hide the sudden flash of tears that sparkled in her brown eyes.  
  
InuYasha's nostrils flared at the hint of the taijiya's tears, and he bowed his own head, claws clenching convulsively.  
  
"Sango...InuYasha..." Miroku said almost helplessly.  
  
"I will rescue Kagome. I have sworn it." InuYasha said bitterly, as he raised his head and stared at the slayer.  
  
Sango's small hands tightened on her arms, white-knuckling with her tension. Her words were slow and harsh. "Then stop crying after that...that...woman," Brown eyes flashed as she again raised her head and stared back at the hanyou with barely controlled rage, "and get to it!"  
  
"What the hell do you know about it?!" InuYasha's slight leash over his anger broke and his shout echoed through the trees.  
  
"You ask that of me?" Sango spat. "When you know that Naraku has my brother's life in his hands? You of all people should know that I understand pain and sacrifice! How can you stand there and accuse me of not knowing what it is to have one you loved betray you!"  
  
InuYasha's shoulders slumped and he bowed his head again. "Sango...I..."  
  
"You wouldn't let me end it!" The cry of pained loss and frustration welled out of the taijiya's lips like the wail of a lonely wind. The accusation rang in the air between the two warriors, and Miroku almost lost his grip on his staff in shock. He knew nothing of what had passed between the two of them that day when Sango had tried to take Kohaku's life, and end the cycle of bloodied control Naraku had over him. That day, Sango had thought that her brother had escaped Naraku, and she had rejoiced in his return to her. She, who had always been so close to her family, had lost them all at Kohaku's hand and by Naraku's evil. But Naraku could not pass up the chance to insinuate the boy back into the group of friends with a terrible plot to have Kohaku kill Kagome, whose growing miko powers he feared. Realizing that Kohaku was still enslaved by Naraku, and would continue to be controlled by the dark hanyou, Sango had been prepared to take her brother's life, and her own.  
  
And yet InuYasha had stopped her.  
  
"He didn't kill Kagome." InuYasha said softly. "He could have, but he didn't."  
  
Sango's eyes clenched, fighting back tears. "He is still in Naraku's hands! And Kagome..."  
  
"Sango." InuYasha paused, uncertain.  
  
"We need to rescue Kagome. She...you...all of you...are all I have left." Sango fell to her knees, her hands tightening in the dirt on either side of her as if she could hold onto the very earth as her anchor.  
  
Miroku laid a wrapped hand on the taijiya's tense shoulder. "Sango. We all understand." He said quietly. Sango refused to look at him.  
  
"I...don't know if I can trust Kikyo." InuYasha bit out the words, a harsh admission to the heart-torn hanyou. He turned away from them to stare at the darkened woods where Shippo and Kirara had disappeared. Shoulders straightening, he came to a decision. "I will go to the Western Lands, to see if Kagome is there, and will rescue her. Miroku will come with me. You, Sango, will go to the village, to Lady Kaede, and see if Kikyo spoke the truth. Kirara is faster, and if Kagome is at Kaede's, then you can send for us."  
  
"No."  
  
InuYasha whipped around, staring angrily at the slayer. "What?!"  
  
Sango raised her head, eyes coldly determined. "Miroku will go with Kirara. Kagome may be hurt and needing his assistance. I will go with you to the Western Lands. I will not allow Kagome to be hurt by Naraku's plotting, like Kohaku was---and is."  
  
"Sango..." Miroku's hand tightened on her shoulder with objection. The taijiya swatted the houshi's hand away, not looking at him or the flash of hurt in his deeply blue eyes at her rejection of his comfort and protection. Standing, the demon slayer picked up her fallen dagger in a graceful motion and carefully slid it back up her black sleeve. She straightened and stared defiantly at them both.  
  
InuYasha's eyes closed as a deep, impatient sigh tumbled out of his chest. Exasperation stalked his steps as he sauntered over to Sango's discarded katana and picked it up---by the hilt this time. He stared intently at the shining steel before striding back over to the taijiya.  
  
Tense silence filled the clearing, broken only by the whisper of wind through leaves.  
  
"Here." InuYasha offered the blade back to the determined girl.  
  
Sango tentatively extended her hand, and then took the hilt with a firm grip, her fingers brushing the hanyou's claws. Mutual understanding, or, at least, mutual respect flashed between them.  
  
Sango nodded once, sharply, accepting the hanyou's unspoken acquiescence.  
  
"Well, hell." Miroku's sorrowful voice had them both turning to look at him.  
  
The houshi's expression was mournful. "How come I always have to be sent away from the beautiful women? How come I have to spend the next few days with a whining kid and a fire-spitting neko?"  
  
Sango's blush and InuYasha's bark of laughter broke the silent tension, just as the monk had desired. "Miroku, you hentai!" InuYasha slapped the houshi on his back, making him stagger under the blow. Miroku allowed a lop-sided grin to break over his mouth, but his eyes were sad a he looked at the smiling, head-shaking taijiya. 


	19. Chapter Eighteen: Simple Joy

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
Chapter Eighteen (Simple Joy)  
  
"What the hell is that smell?!"  
  
The harsh yell filled the caverns, and Hakkaku nearly spitted himself on his spear-point in surprise. The gruff shout had caught him sleeping, his spear leaning indolently against him.  
  
"Koga?" He sniffed as one of his panting wolves whined a tentative greeting. The light from the cave entrance was cut in half by the tall, muscular form that stood blocking it.  
  
"Well? Where the hell is everybody?" Koga strode into the cavern mouth, light blue eyes snapping from side to side. A thick boar, slung over his shoulder, was flung to the ground with force, the long ends of his straight black hair fanning with the motion. A single wolf barked, and then the caverns rung with their simple, joyous welcome as red and brown bodies converged on the returning leader of the wolf-pack.  
  
Koga knelt, embracing the excited wolves who jumped and whined and drooled their welcome. Laughing, he patted noses and scratched ears and dodged tongues. He almost missed the sneaky movements of some of the other pack mates, carefully locking their jaws around the boar's legs to drag it greedily away. A strong fist smacked the nearest thief, who yelped in pain. The others cowered back.  
  
"Greedy mutts! Get away from that!" Koga snarled, and the culprit flipped over on his back, whining his submission. Koga growled back, but didn't attack, and the wolves scrambled away from their eruptive leader, tails between their legs.  
  
"Koga!" Hakkaku grinned, delighted. "You've returned! And with dinner!"  
  
Koga growled again. "If you were sleeping, Hakkaku..."  
  
"I was off-duty!" Hakkaku protested. "Ginta's the one---"  
  
Other members of the wolf tribe rose from their crouches and furs to welcome the returning lord back. Koga gave their welcome an arrogant nod, but his sensitive nose kept wrinkling, and he finally roared over their heads, "What the HELL is that SMELL?!"  
  
"What smell?" Hakkaku asked innocently. His answer was a clout over the back of his white-spiked head. "OW!"  
  
Ginta's head popped around from behind the cave mouth. "Koga? You've returned?" He came bounding into the cave, his pair of brown wolves yipping a joy-filled greeting.  
  
"What is that smell!" Koga roared in return.  
  
"What sm..." Ginta's question died at Koga's ice-blue glare. He looked thoughtful, and then brightened. "Oh, yeah! THAT smell."  
  
Koga growled.  
  
"We've gotten used to it." Ginta shrugged, coming over to stand next to Hakkaku, who was rubbing the tender spot on the back of his head. "It's Hideki boiling herbs."  
  
"What?!" Koga's nose flared in outrage, and he almost choked as more of the noxious fumes found their way up his nasal passages.  
  
"Oh." Hakkaku brightened in turn, as comprehension dawned. "It's the stinkweed. Keeps the bugs away from the herbs."  
  
"That's what Hideki says." Another youkai sniffed, narrowing his nostrils in a failing attempt to close off the nauseating stench.  
  
Ginta waved a hand in front of his nose. "Now that you mention it, it is kinda awful."  
  
"Kinda?" Koga whirled on the wolf-brother. "It REEKS!"  
  
"I know." Hakkaku said morosely. Koga glared at the white-spiked wolf youkai with a jaundiced, are-you-crazy-or-what eye. "Even Yura couldn't stand it, and she went for a walk in the forest to clear her head. Or so she said."  
  
"Who?" Koga's brow furrowed as his tail flicked with impatience. The smell was permeating everything, including his thought processes. The stinkweed fumes were building up behind his eyes, giving him a headache.  
  
"Yura." Ginta replied helpfully.  
  
Hakkaku held up his spear defensively at the exasperated scowl. "The woman."  
  
Icy blue eyes narrowed as the tail stilled in anger as his attention was caught away from the noxious fumes. Chagrined expressions were exchanged as the volatile leader of the wolf pack roared, "WHAT WOMAN?"  
  
....................................  
  
There was a knock on the wooden door, and Kagome froze in mid brush- stroke. 'Who would knock on my door?' Curiosity dogged her steps as she laid down the silver-back comb and went into the sitting room, tightening the sash of her white yukata and smoothing a wrinkle in the soft fabric as she called out, "Yes?"  
  
The door creaked open, and she almost jumped back as a youkai stepped into the room and bowed. He looked barely human. The light, dove-grey skin and noseless face under a tidy black topknot made her eyes widen. Pale pink eyes studied the girl impassively as Kagome noted in the back of her mind that the youkai had four arms instead of two. She watched in weird fascination as one hand closed the door, while another held a small bundle, and the other two were engaged in his bow to her.  
  
"What are you?" She asked ingeniously.  
  
The youkai blinked once in surprise, before bowing again. "I am Suyo, my lady. I am a spider demon in my lord SesshouMaru's service."  
  
"Spider?" Kagome couldn't help the shiver. Besides an active sense of arachniphobia for just the normal, everyday spiders of her own time, she had quite a few reasons to be nervous around spider demons in THIS time!  
  
Suyo watched her patiently, used to the reaction of ningen around him. Only Rin, the Lord's ward, had ever approached him fearlessly, and Rin still insisted that he was not a spider, but a grey man with four arms. The young human girl had still not figured out that certain youkai could transfigure into humanoid forms at whim, and he was not one to press the issue.  
  
The girl in front of him also surprised him. "Well, it's...uh...nice to meet you." She offered a slightly awkward bow of her own, before saying. "I'm Kagome."  
  
"Yes, my lady." Suyo nodded. Silence stretched between them.  
  
"Er..." Kagome looked around, spying the pillow-backed chairs and seizing on them. "Won't you sit down, Mr. Suyo?"  
  
Amusement glinted in the pink eyes. "No thank you, my lady. I have only come to deliver this kimono to you." He extended the bundle with his lower hands. Kagome blinked at the graceful motion, and then took the proffered bundle. Gingerly seating herself on one of the chairs, she undid the sash and opened the cotton wrapper. A slight gasp emerged as she uncovered the pale blue silk underneath.  
  
"Oh, how pretty!" She smiled, withdrawing the silken yukata from the cotton wrapping. Silver-threaded flowers were dotted on sleeve and neck, and the accompanying sash was also vined with silver, shimmering in the weak sunlight that came from her bedroom window.  
  
Suyo bowed again. "I am to tell you that the Lord SesshouMaru wishes your presence at dinner tonight."  
  
A frown wrinkled the delicate brow. "Wishes?"  
  
Suyo hid a pleased smile. The girl was engaging. "Commands, my lady."  
  
"Oh." Kagome rolled her eyes. "You were just being polite. What if I don't want to go?"  
  
"That is unwise, my lady." The pink eyes were steady on her own.  
  
Kagome sighed impatiently. "You're probably right. His High and Mightiness wouldn't let me defy him for long."  
  
Suyo's eyes widened at the girl's audacity. He kept it simple. "My lady."  
  
Another sigh. "I'll come, but he better not give me any more sake! I can't even remember what happened last night, and I got this awful bruise on my neck!"  
  
The spider youkai's eyes narrowed fractionally, even as he reassured her. "I saw you to your chambers myself last night, my lady. I will take you to dinner tonight. It is my duty to keep you safe, my lady."  
  
Kagome blinked at him. "Er...thank you, Mr. Suyo. That's very nice of you. I never expected anyone in this stupid rock-pile to be kind."  
  
"It is as my Lord commands, my lady." Suyo dismissed her gratitude with a bow. "I will return in time for the evening meal." The spider youkai turned, and left the room as silently as he had come, leaving the wondering girl behind him.  
  
..................................  
  
SesshouMaru allowed a single claw-tip to dig into the wooden arm of his chair. He was surprised at his own impatience, and he released the tension in his fingers slowly, deliberately.  
  
'She is only a ningen.'  
  
He reviewed Suyo's reassuring words. He had allowed the servant to pick out an appropriate garment, and send it to the girl, with orders to join him for dinner. Suyo had had a revealing conversation with the miko, and the Lord had been a bit surprised at the spider youkai's almost indiscreet admiration for the ningen. When SesshouMaru had questioned his loyal servant's regard, Suyo had only bowed and replied simply, "She is like Rin."  
  
SesshouMaru did not like the comparison. He knew that Suyo admired Rin for her simple trust and loyalty to him, the Taiyoukai, and that the spider demon appreciated Rin's fearlessness around him. He idly wondered if he should put the little girl under Suyo's supervision, rather than Jaken's. But, strangely, Rin seemed to prefer Jaken. Perhaps it was because the strange human girl saw the ugly imp as a playmate instead of a superior. It amused the Lord that Jaken found the idea rather revolting and indecent to his eminence as an advisor.  
  
'The miko does not remember. The spiced potion, which I have carefully proportioned to allow for her weak tolerance, should work well.'  
  
His eyes glided over the fine dinner set out on the small table across from him. Humans had appetites that he disdained. Their bodies needed daily fuel to sustain them. He had forsaken the spiced sake for tea. The girl would not suspect him to drug the tea. She was too innocent and believing. Perhaps Suyo was right to compare her with Rin, after all.  
  
That did not rule out her threat to himself.  
  
He must be careful and on guard tonight. He had painstakingly planned the evening. It would be the culmination of his revenge on his half-bastard brother. His inu youkai blood stirred at the thought. Tonight he would claim his brother's defeat. InuYasha would know the bitter blow of weakness.  
  
Fangs flashed in a cold smile.  
  
..................................  
  
Winds flapped through the houshi's blue and purple robes as he sunk one hand deeper into the neko youkai's creamy fur. Kirara rumbled reassuringly at him, and Shippo giggled at Miroku's blank expression.  
  
"Miroku! Kirara won't let you fall!" Shippo sang out on the wind. The cub's spirits had soared to their usual bubbly cheerfulness when he realized that he and the monk would be traveling back to Lady Kaede's village to find Kagome.  
  
He waved aside the worry that Kagome might be hurt. He didn't believe that stupid old mud pie of a Kikyo, she didn't know much of anything but anger and vengeance. She was just a bitter old clay clone who only wanted to hurt InuYasha. Kagome must have gotten free and returned to Kaede. Besides, even if she was hurt (doubtful), then Lady Kaede would help her get better!  
  
Of course, they had to be certain, and that was why InuYasha and Sango had set off alone for the Western Lands, just to make sure. But Shippo just knew that his Kagome was all right and waiting for them back at the village. She might even have some candy for him.  
  
That thought cheered him most of all, until he remembered with a pang that the Bone-Eater's well was gone. Kagome couldn't go home anymore. No more cherry lollipops or chocolate candy bars.  
  
But that also meant that she couldn't leave him. Shippo shook with joy, wanting to dance and laugh and cry all at the same time, but he was stuck on Kirara, who wouldn't be too pleased if he fell off of her and she had to carry him by his fluffy tail again. But his heart was full of simple joy at the thought that his Kagome couldn't leave him anymore. She would always be there for him now. He wouldn't lose her like he had his parents.  
  
A laugh of pure happiness bubbled out of him, and he dug his paws into Kirara's neck, silently urging her to fly faster. 


	20. Chapter Nineteen: Surprises

Chapter Nineteen (Surprises)  
  
A slight scratch at the door to his rooms alerted him that the girl had arrived. SesshouMaru stayed relaxed in his chair, eyes turned toward the fire that danced merrily on the hearth. At these heights, the night air grew chill, and although he did not need the fire's warmth, he liked the dance of flickering flames. It was soothing, and primal.  
  
"My lord." The slight hiss of indrawn breath that accompanied the simple greeting from his discreet servant was the only sound that came from the girl. SesshouMaru allowed a mere flick of one claw to signal Suyo's departure. His staff were rigidly trained to follow his slightest movement as a command.  
  
He could smell the faint hesitation from the ningen girl behind him. The soft thud of the closing door made her stir uneasily. The Lord mentally sighed. Humans were so trifling. Without turning his head, he ordered. "You will sit."  
  
A spurt of indignation had the Taiyoukai's eyes narrow slightly. He slowly turned his head to pierce the foolish miko with a cold look. The mark on her white neck was red and angry. He was unprepared for the powerful pulling he felt toward his mark. His eyes arrowed on it, and he could hear the slow pounding of the girl's heart as her blood coursed through her body, giving moving life to limbs and heat to the flush that stained her pale cheeks. The smell of her was almost intoxicating...the slight hint of fear and anger swirling together with the innocense of life...truly intoxicating.  
  
His voice was icy. "Come."  
  
The miko actually wrinkled her nose at him, and crossed her arms in front of her. Pale blue silk slithered seductively across white skin. A faint reddish glow flashed through the Taiyoukai's golden eyes, and was gone.  
  
"You better not think you're gonna get me drunk again!"  
  
The miko continually surprised him. Her foolhardy bravado was an act, he could smell the nervous fear on her. It amused him.  
  
"Your intolerance for spirits has been well noted. There is only tea."  
  
She actually grumbled under breath, thinking he would not hear. "Intolerance! Stupid youkai."  
  
He should not allow her liberties.  
  
The ice was back as his thin patience evaporated. "Sit and eat. I will not tell you again."  
  
Brown eyes flashed defiantly, but the girl merely shrugged, trying to act nonchalant, and stepped around him to take the chair across from him. A small table, intricately carved, graced the area between them. A small tray of delicacies awaited the miko, the small cup with its steaming tea warmed gently golden in the firelight.  
  
The girl sat with her small hands twisting in her lap, rucking the blue silk between nervous fingers. SesshouMaru waited, golden eyes hooded.  
  
Her eyes were narrowed when she looked back up at him. A black tendril of hair framed her cheek and curled past the angry crescent mark on the curve of her neck.  
  
"What is it with you and watching me eat?"  
  
The Lord remained silent.  
  
"You know, you can be really weird sometimes."  
  
A faint growl escaped him. The miko could be unbelievably annoying at times.  
  
"Drink."  
  
The order was cold. As soon as the girl had fallen under the tea's honeyed warmth, he could pursue his revenge. His patience was incredibly thin this evening, the tight rein on his inu youkai blood was loosening.  
  
The girl rolled her eyes even as one small hand grasped the smooth- sided porcelain. "At least it's not sake." She actually grumbled under her breath as she drew the cup closer to her flushed lips.  
  
SesshouMaru's clawed fingers clenched on the wooden arm of his chair, the only outward sign of his sudden surprise. A faint, pinkish glow emanated from the girl's small hand as she bent her head to sip at the warmed tea, blissfully unaware of the aura of sacred power that flared and died around her hand.  
  
She had purified the potion.  
  
Golden eyes narrowed as momentary anger shot through the Taiyoukai. The girl, unknowingly, had cleared the tea of his carefully concocted spices, and with the mere touch of her ningen fingers. Her sacred energy, without training, had acted on its own in defense of the pitiful human. His carefully laid plans had depended on the girl's absolute compliance with his wishes, and the tea was supposed to have guaranteed her complacency. The girl's powers had denied him, the Taiyoukai of the Western Lands. Again.  
  
Golden eyes glowed as a low growl escaped him.  
  
.........................................................................  
  
Kagura could feel the breeze that touched her cheek in a gentle caress, lifting an escaping tendril of wavy black hair as it passed, fluttering the simple white yukata that cloaked her skin...and she was consumed with a longing for the winds. They called to her, she was of them.  
  
A single tear stole down her pale cheek.  
  
She had lost so much. Her control of the winds was broken. Naraku might have returned the heart that beat its life-force through her body, but her soul was gone forever.  
  
The winds were her anchor, her power, her strength. She knew that she had been formed from Naraku---he had seperated some of the demons that made up his body and gave his angry soul the strength to live, and created her from them. Just as he had created her elder sister Kanna, the unfeeling ghost of the void. Just as he had created others, tools for his hate and dark lust for power.  
  
Naraku had known what he was doing when he gave her back her heart. He had sentenced her to a living death.  
  
Without the winds, she was powerless. Her weak body might heal, but she, who had known the strength of the winds, was but a shadow of her former self. The arrogant pride that had created the smouldering anger to bear the dark hanyou's many indignities over her body and mind had been snapped and broken into shattered pieces and lost longings.  
  
A gentle breeze riffled through her long hair, unbound since she had woken from the pain, here in the wolf's den. The long tendrils, as wavy and black as her dark hanyou creator's, kissed her arms and back as the wind played with them, almost seeming to comfort her broken soul with its presence. Kagura closed her eyes as her heart---so long sought---beat with longing.  
  
But she was stronger than Naraku.  
  
Her back stiffened as the whisper of the wind called her. Red eyes rubied with steely determination.  
  
She might not be half of what she had been, but it would have to be enough. She was the Wind, and what the wind could not knock down with force, it would twist around, finding the chink in the armor to howl its rage through.  
  
She would kill Naraku, if it took the last breath in her weak body.  
  
The faint hint of stinkweed made her delicate nose twitch. She had walked away from the wolf caverns, seeking peace from the noxious fumes. Ginta, one of the wolf-brothers, a young male youkai with grey hair and impossible innocent view of the world, had begged for him to escort her. Kagura had declined sharply, not wanting the company of those she feared.  
  
The wolf clans had a blood debt against her, no matter if it had been Naraku who had controlled her. She had killed many of the wolf-brothers, most of them from the northern clans, but some from this tribe as well, and the dead bodies had danced to her fan's control of the winds. The wolves had come to Naraku's phantom castle, seeking the sacred jewel shards that gave demons power beyond their own desires. It was all a part of Naraku's twisted plot, to steal the shards from the young leader of the eastern clan.  
  
Koga.  
  
A slight shiver, her weak body's reaction to her new found fear of weakness, made her icy from the thought. Naraku's revenge on her failure was as twisted as any of the dark hanyou's schemes. Leaving her broken and helpless, at the mercy of the wolves who sought her blood....  
  
She had been gifted by the spirits, that Koga had been away from the caverns his tribe called home. The wolf-brothers who had remained behind, not drawn in to Naraku's evil deceit at the castle, had not realized who she was. A small mercy. She had been allowed to recover...at least, recover as much as she may. Without the strength of the winds, she was nothing compared to her former self. And she had feared Koga's anger then.  
  
It terrified her now.  
  
But she was not one to give in to terror. She had survived. She would always survive.  
  
She was the Wind.  
  
............................................................  
  
Sango neatly braced herself against the hanyou's red-robed back, her small hands tightening on the wide shoulders at InuYasha's abrupt halt. She had seen Kagome's unbalanced jarring and indignant "oomphs!" of discomfort enough to know that InuYasha didn't always pay attention to the comfort of the people he carried---or how a sudden stop could send them smacking into it.  
  
"What is it?" She asked, her eyes scanning the tree-darkened horizon. InuYasha's strong shoulders tensed under her hands, she could feel the wary stretch of taunt muscles under her fingers.  
  
"We're at the border." The hanyou's harsh murmur was barely discernable. Sango remained silent. She could not know what was passing through InuYasha's mind, what ghosts plagued his memories of this land.  
  
There was nothing to mark the boundary of SesshouMaru's lands. They stood deep in forest, the trees before and behind them blanketing the foothills as early evening purpled the sky. She could barely make out the darker edges of jagged mountains that lay misted in distance ahead of them.  
  
"Do you know where his fortress is?" Sango asked tentatively. Since her rage at the forest's edge the day before, she had been quiet and pensive. Embarrassment at her lack of control still sent her cheeks flushing. She could not blame InuYasha for his interference, just like she could not blame Kohaku for his actions. If there was anyone to blame, it was herself. If she had not been so weak, if she had not allow Naraku to take her poor brother again, if she had been able to defend her father and the others from the vicious spider demon....  
  
The thoughts twisted inside her, making her heart clench with grief, and then she neatly put them aside. She was not one to distract herself with her own shortcomings. She was here to rescue Kagome. Kagome, who had showed her how to open up, and actually feel again. Kagome's open acceptance and sisterly support had warmed Sango's lonely heart like nothing since her mother had died so many years ago. Kagome had shown her that it was all right to feel. Raised as a warrior since her mother's early death, Sango had deliberately set feelings aside as weak. It was bad enough that she had been a girl, desperately trying to win her father's approval and esteem.  
  
Her father's heart had died at his wife's death in childbirth. Kohaku had been the sickly babe wrenched from her dying womb, and the midwives had cast doubt as to whether he would live. Kohaku did survive, but he was so weak and sickly as a young child, that no one hoped he would make it to manhood. Her father, headman of the village and clan leader of the slayers, had turned to Sango as his only progeny. Sango determined to win her father's honor, vowing to become the best, even if she was only a girl.  
  
And she had.  
  
'And it still wasn't enough.'  
  
InuYasha let out an exasperated growl, distracting Sango from her dark thoughts. "I know where it is." His scowling reply made Sango dig for her question---she had asked him if he knew where the castle was.  
  
"Well, no sense wasting time here." InuYasha shrugged distractedly. Sango's body easily adjusted to the abrupt movement, fluidly following the play of strong muscles underneath her. InuYasha gave her an amber glance out of the corner of his eye. "Sorry." He gruffly apologized for his inattention.  
  
"Shall we go?" Sango asked quietly.  
  
"Yeah." The hanyou tensed, legs bracing as his attention focused forward. The taijiya tightened her thighs around his hips, readying herself for the mighty leap that would take them over the trees and into the unknown lands beyond.  
  
................................................................  
  
"The village! I see the village!"  
  
Shippo nearly bounced off of the flying neko in his excitement. A warning growl from Kirara made him giggle unabashedly. Miroku shook his head at the little cub's enthusiasm. Shippo was convinced that they would find Kagome safe and sound in Lady Kaede's village.  
  
The terrain before them was green and welcoming, the water-stretched fields before the village framed by the thick trees that surrounded it. Miroku winced as he spied the blackened swath where InuYasha's forest had stood. Only a few trees had survived the destruction of the fire. One, the mighty God's Tree, towered above the charred deadwood around it, like a symbol of defiance. A feeling of quiet reverence filled the monk as he gazed at the tree.  
  
"There's Kaede's hut!" Shippo called out, diverting the houshi's attention. Kirara, feet flaming, roared a welcome to the figures that stopped in the fields. The villagers had become familiar with the neko youkai over the years. One or two of them waved before bending back to their labors. Shippo waved back, excitedly clutching Kirara's fur in one small paw, anxious for her to land so that he could see his Kagome again.  
  
The thatched huts of the village proper grew larger as the neko angled down, looking for a spot to land. A gnarled form, swathed in the red and white robes of a miko, emerged from the hut. The priestess watched dispassionately as Kirara arced and landed smoothly, a slight puff of dust rising from the dirt as her paws sought balance on the firm ground.  
  
Shippo bounced off the neko, green eyes dancing with expected joy. "Lady Kaede! Where's Kagome?"  
  
The old miko blinked in surprise. "Kagome?"  
  
Miroku's hand tightened on his staff, making the rings tingle in reaction. The neko rumbled a sad sound under him, red eyes glowing compassionately.  
  
"Miroku!"  
  
Miroku jerked his head around at the happy, feminine call. His blue eyes widened in shock at the girlish figure swathed in red and white to match Kaede. Long black hair, bound back with a simple white ribbon outlined warm brown eyes and a delighted smile. Miroku's throat worked convulsively, before his voice found sound in incredulity.  
  
"Koharu?" 


	21. Chapter Twenty: Drowning

WARNING: LIMES...DO NOT READ IF UNDER 17!  
  
Chapter Twenty (Drowning)  
  
"What's the matter with you?"  
  
The question burst from Kagome's lips before she could think to stifle it. One small hand came up to cover her mouth.  
  
'Oops.'  
  
The demon lord didn't look too happy---in fact, he looked downright pissed.  
  
SesshouMaru didn't show his anger like his hanyou brother. His eyes didn't darken and his claws didn't clench into fists. He didn't immediately open his mouth and start yelling at the top of his lungs.  
  
Instead, he froze into utter stillness.  
  
Just like a predator, and Kagome knew with no uncertainty who his prey was.  
  
"Err...I don't feel very hungry right now." She said lamely, dropping her eyes and fisting her hands in her lap. She played with the light blue silk of her yukata, before coming to a decision.  
  
'There's no problem with just running. No problem at all...'  
  
The Lord's eyes were darkening, almost like InuYasha's. Time to go.  
  
Kagome slid from her chair, smoothing the sensuous silk over her hips, wiping at imaginary wrinkles. "Um...uh...I think I should be going now." She said nervously. "I shouldn't keep you up and all." She took a half-step sideways, closer to the door. "I'm sure you have a lot to do and all..."  
  
She bolted.  
  
And found that her churning legs weren't getting her anywhere. In fact, she was being dragged backwards. 'What the...?'  
  
SesshouMaru's fluffy tail was wrapped tightly around her waist, inevitably dragging her back to the now-standing Taiyoukai. His face was cold and severe, but his eyes flashed red.  
  
'Uh-oh!'  
  
Kagome tried plucking at his tail with her small fingers, desperate to win free. She was really, really scared now, her heart beating in her ears like a caught butterfly.  
  
SesshouMaru's tail dragged her to him, so that her back was to his front. She could feel the heated breadth of him through the thin silk of her yukata. Kagome shivered, closing her eyes, her mind yelling at her to get free, to fight, to flee, to faint, to do anything but just stand there like a deer caught in the headlights!  
  
Long fingers, sharp claws glinting in the firelight, came up to her neck, and Kagome couldn't stop the convulsive shudder that went through her.  
  
"Please." Oh, how she hated herself for that weak plea!  
  
Claws swept her hair aside, and Kagome nearly jumped as warm lips found the red welt on her neck. She felt the inquisitive touch of a warm tongue, and she nearly fainted as sudden longing stabbed through her, making her body weak and her knees sag. The furry tail tightened around her, keeping her upright, as a single strong arm wrapped around her, pinning her own arms to her sides. Sharp teeth grazed the wound, and Kagome let out an involuntary yelp that turned into a moan of lost anguish.  
  
What are you doing to me? One part of her mind cried out.  
  
'Breathe...'  
  
The commanding voice was in her head, filling her with strange feelings of warmth and longing. She gulped convulsively, seeking air as the voice came up like a tidal wave, swamping resistance aside. One part of her mind screamed at her to break free, to run and hide, but the waves of command rolled over it, drowning her own protests in need.  
  
She felt as if she floated in a sea of warm, heated emotions. 'I'm drowning!' She cried out in sadness. 'I'm drowning...' The thought was whisked away from her, whirled along by the waves of longing and desire that filled her.  
  
'Feel...'  
  
The voice was surrounding her, beating down the weak barrier she tried to erect against it. She could feel her senses expanding, her responses shifting. She felt bathed in drowning warmth, the sea of longing swamping her paltry resistance aside...  
  
A/N: This is the stopping point for R Rated Stories... ;P If you are old enough, NC17 version appears on A Single Spark and aff.net... if you are not inclined toward lemons, this story can be continued without them... 


	22. Chapter TwentyOne: Chaos

WARNING: LIMES DO NOT READ IF UNDER 17!  
  
Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Inuyasha...sigh...  
  
A/N: Chapter 20 and 21 are short on this version, because they contain lemons on other sites rated for NC17. This story can be read without them, though. There is some lime included, however, so be forewarned.  
  
Again, thank you for all the reviews. It has been wonderful the support I have received for this story. If you have any helpful advice, hints, or interesting plot twists, I more than welcome them. Thank you very much!!!  
  
Chapter Twenty-One (Chaos)  
  
Her whispered touch on his wounded arm roused him, and he woke with a startled hiss. His eyes flashed red for a moment as he growled in reaction. Her softly exploring fingers whipped back away from the maimed stump of his arm, and SesshouMaru controlled his biting anger. He stared at the girl with narrowed eyes, wanting her to tell him why she had touched the very symbol of his defeat.  
  
Big brown eyes, starred with tears, stared at him with compelling sadness. "I'm sorry." She whispered against his chest, before she bowed her head, her bangs hiding her expression from him.  
SesshouMaru's arm tightened around the little miko before he used the claws of his one, intact hand to pull her chin up so he could stare more deeply into her soul. She was unlike anything he had ever known. She, who had feared and defied him, who he was using as merely an instrument of revenge to humiliate his overly proud and possessive hanyou brother, was apologizing to him, expressing her sadness and pity at his loss.  
  
He hated pity. He despised it. But, disturbingly, not from her...  
  
................................................................ A/N: Sometimes later, in the bathing pool attached to his rooms... .................................................................  
  
She was exhausted, and merely murmured sleepily as he kissed her soft cheek. His long, white hair clung to his back and shoulders, the ends swirling in the flow of gentle waters. He watched with awakened wonder as the flow of water circled their hair together, black and white, to blend and mix under the waters. His tail curled under her, supporting her as his clawed fingers touched the soft white skin, flicking over stomach and breast to trace the slowly pinkening mark of his possession. The crescent- shaped wound was healing, losing the angry welt to softly scar the white skin. He kissed it, his soul oddly touched with need as he gazed in wonder at the girl cradled to him.  
  
"Kagome." Her name was whispered across her skin, his mouth forming the unfamiliar syllables with wonder. His need had a name, and it was beautiful to him.  
  
Dark lashes fluttered on pale cheeks, and a soft sigh wrapped around him and pulled at his long-buried soul. His head bowed over hers, the heavy ends of his silver-white hair clinging in a curtain over her soft cheeks. A small hand came up to brush at the white hair, and he caught a glimpse of vague brown eyes before her delicate lashes closed once more.  
  
She murmured, warmth filling her voice before her eyes closed in exhausted sleep. His ears perked, waiting to hear the single word she spoke so softly.  
  
"InuYasha..."  
  
SesshouMaru froze.  
  
Red rage erupted inside him, and he could feel her rejection of him down to the very being of his soul.  
  
"You are only InuYasha's whore." He snarled at her, the rage uncontrolled and burning with a need to hurt her as she had him. "See what good you are to him now."  
  
He flung the words at the sobbing girl, turning and speeding his way from the room, loathing the rage and sadness warring within his chaotic mind. 


	23. Chapter TwentyTwo: Smack!

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and Co. belong to Rumiko...lucky lady...and not me...(weeping bitter tears)...  
  
A/N: Wow! Thank you for all the responses from C20/21! (Devilish grin, I hadn't known so many people could get mad at Kagome!) Promises of future misunderstandings and future understandings...but for now, a few thanks to Athena for continued inspiration, River and Shiro Ryu for some new twists in ideas, a note to "Anonymous" - I do not mind reviews from any source!, a note to Wicca: Where are you? Both email addresses are now cut off! Miss the frosted flakes!, special bow to Feminafures - you inspired me in "Hot Like Fire" for certain (ahem) parts of my Sess lemon, and enough dawdling...on to the next chappie...Puffin and Sessmylvr6 requested some background information regarding Koharu. She is a minor character who appeared in episode # 41, where she met Miroku again, declaring she was ready to bear his child. They left her in the care of an elder in the next village, and Miroku left her with the knowledge of his Wind Tunnel and his impossibility to be there for her---no matter how much she loved him. He did promise her, however, that he would give her a child, if she would wish it. =) (Gotta love hentai's!) Three years have passed since they left Koharu in the village, and she is now 17...  
  
WARNING: Some language in this chapter.  
  
Chapter Twenty-Two (Smack!)  
  
"Where the hell is this woman?" Koga roared at Ginta, whose ears flattened at the volume his wolfish leader could achieve.  
  
"Well, she just said she was going for a walk..." Ginta gestured toward the trees that stood some distance from the entrance to their caverns.  
  
"Are you an idiot?" Koga growled at him. "You let a prisoner go walking out alone in the woods?"  
  
"I'd say Ginta's an idiot." Hakkaku provided helpfully. Both youkai shot him sour looks. Koga's fur-clad arms crossed over his armored chest and he regarded both of his younger wolf-brothers with icy blue eyes.  
  
Ginta grumbled under his breath, walking ahead a few paces, before he paused and turned back to Koga, a sudden notion catching him up. "Prisoner? Yura's a prisoner?"  
  
"Well, what the hell else is she?" Koga growled, striding past the jaw-dropped youkai as he preceded them toward the woods. A small herd of anxious wolves followed after him, their paws stirring up faint puffs dust in their wake. Ginta and Hokkaku just stared at each other, dumbfounded.  
  
"B-But Yura's a lady." Hokkaku said, puzzled.  
  
A dreamy smile crossed Ginta's simple face. "A pretty lady."  
  
Hakkaku closed his eyes as a dreamier smile curved his own mouth. "Yah...pretty."  
  
"Ginta! Hakkaku!" Koga roared at the forest's edge. Both wolf- brothers jerked around, exchanging chagrined expressions as they realized how much further ahead their leader's long strides had seperated them. Clutching their spears in sweaty palms, both youkai gulped---Koga had no patience with dawdlers---and scrambled down the dusty embankment after him. Some of the wolves hovering around Koga came loping back to urge their wolf- brothers on. Koga waited impatiently, arms crossed over his chest again.  
  
That didn't bode well for the inattentive duo.  
  
Both wolf youkai stopped a pace away---with enough distance that they might be able to dodge a flying fist if Koga decided to really go after their inattention. Koga stared at them both for a long, significant moment.  
  
Long enough for both of them to stir uneasily and look down at their feet.  
  
A heavy sigh, and both youkai looked up with hopeful expressions. "Both of you are growing slow." Koga growled at them. "You're driving me insane. I'm going to let you slide this time, but the next time..." The threat hung in the air between the three youkai, and was only broken by Hakkaku shifting his feet. One of their four-legged brothers whined.  
  
Koga shook himself, growling. "Which way did that damn woman go?" His demand was directed at Ginta.  
  
The grey-haired wolf-brother scratched the back of his head, looking thoughtful. Koga's blue eyes narrowed as his tail twitched with impatient annoyance. Hakkaku took a conspicuous step backwards, away from Ginta.  
  
"WELL?" Koga finally roared.  
  
Ginta jerked, and ineffectually used his spear to arc across the wide expanse of forest. "She went into the woods..." A rippling shrug of fur- clad shoulders, and suddenly he was knocked over on his rear, rubbing at the nice goose-egg Koga had just gifted him with his heavy fist. "OW!"  
  
Hakkaku took another step backwards, gulping. Koga growled at the pair of hapless wolf youkai, blue eyes narrowed. "Stupid..." One of the wolves whined again, drawing Koga's attention back to the forest. He paused for a long, tension-filled moment, and Hakkaku stared in fascination as his volatile leader drew in a long breath, his sensitive nose twitching.  
  
"That scent..." Koga's eyes were deadly now, the ice slowly turning to fire, and deepening the intense blue of his eyes. Koga took a single step closer to the darkly green forest, sniffing delicately on the breeze. "That's..." A deep, menacing growl welled up from his throat, and the wolf youkai's hands twitched, claws digging into his palms.  
  
A wolf wuffed in question, and Koga's eyes swept back to pin his followers with an angry glare. "I'm going ahead. You catch up. Keep your spears ready. There's something in that forest that reeks of Naraku."  
  
Hakkaku and Ginta both twitched in reaction of that name. Both knew how much their leader loathed the dark hanyou who had set the wolf tribes up in a dark plot to steal the Shikon shards that Koga used in his legs to enhance his speed and strength. Many wolf-brothers had died, and Koga himself had nearly been poisoned by the fake, malignant crystal of Naraku's fashioning. Only the youkai's rather wolf-shy girlfriend, Kagome, had saved their leader from certain death.  
  
Koga had declared a blood-debt on Naraku and the dark hanyou's foul offspring, Kagura.  
  
"Naraku..." Hakkaku gulped.  
  
"And Yura's in there!" Ginta shivered. "Koga! You will protect Yura, won't you?!"  
  
"Yeah. Whatever." Koga said, his angry attention already focused on a single goal. Finding the reason for that awful scent and crushing it under his bare fists. "Hurry and follow!" He shouted over his shoulder as he took the first stride with his Jewel-enhanced legs. A swirl of dusty wind whipped up around the running figure, and both brothers watched in the silent amazement that never seemed to tire them as the long stream of their leader's black hair disappeared into the tornado-like winds that were stirred up by his speed.  
  
Hakkaku helped Ginta up, and they both loped after the dusty whirlwind, their hearts anxious over the fate of their Lady.  
  
...............................................  
  
Kagura stirred, her awareness shifting. She could feel something powerful approaching her, and at some speed. The Wind was stirring around her, and she felt its call tensing the muscles in her arms and shooting down her back. Her delicate hands clenched, her claws digging a small tatoo of welts on her white palms, as she stretched her senses, seeking the source of the Wind that called to her.  
  
'The Wind! The Wind is returning to me!'  
  
Her mind was overcome with joy, and tears sparkled in her red eyes, deepening the color of them into glinting rubies. Her head whipped up, making the long waves of her raven hair froth over her shoulders and back. She turned away from the distracting view below her to embrace the Wind that was coming toward her at such speed. Her sensitive nostrils twitched, but she ignored the nagging foreboding that snagged at her attention. The Wind would never hurt her. It was hers, it was calling to her!  
  
She took the first stumbling step closer to the source of that power. She could feel the swirling of dusty winds pulling along her soul, and her heart beat faster in her chest with anxious anticipation. Could they be returning to her? The winds? Her steps quickened, and she ignored everything around her, seeking the source of that powerful draw. Brush dragged at the thin fabric of her white yukata, and she casually jerked at the hindrance, tearing the hem in her haste. She felt the sting of thorns scraping her arms as her seeking senses narrowed on the source and ignored the path her running feet were taking her through.  
  
The Wind was coming straight for her, and Kagura's soul burned with joy-filled desire to unite with the dusty whirlwind that she could see through the tangling trees. There, in that clearing, she would meet it, become one with it! Her feet hurried, even as one hand tore at a branch that tangled in her hair, trying to keep her away from the Wind...  
  
Tearing the snagging clutch on her hair, she nearly sobbed in relief as the tangle came free. She drew forward, her fingers reaching for the whirlwind that was coming toward her. She burst from the impeding brush and into the clearing, her steps lurching as she stumbled over a raised tree root. She fell to her knees on the softly damp grass, her arms reaching out for the Wind.  
  
Her black hair danced on the breezes raised by that powerful whirlwind, the long waves obscuring her vision until she shook her head impatiently, causing the long tendrils to curl behind her. Yearning filled her soul, and she moaned softly in a plea for the Wind to come to her, her rubied eyes wide, her lips parted in silent appeal.  
  
Something hard thudded to the earth before her, and Kagura almost cried out in despair as the Winds died, cut off abruptly as if by a sweeping hand of denial. The cry froze in her throat as she saw just WHO the swirling dust of the whirlwind had hidden. Long, straight black hair fell with a faint whisper against the fur-armored back, and she could see the strong muscles of his braced legs and the sudden narrowing of rage- filled, icy blue eyes. She paled, and her ruby eyes opened further and sparked with fear as her mind screamed at her in sheer terror.  
  
'KOGA!'  
  
.................................................  
  
"K-Koharu?" Miroku slid shakily off the neko as his eyes swept over the welcoming girl who had run to him. His hand tightened on the wood of his jingling staff in reaction as the girl---no, young woman---stopped in front of him. Her smile was as bright as ever, her warm brown eyes rippling over him in return as she scanned him for any differences in appearance that might have changed each of them since their last meeting, nearly three years ago.  
  
Koharu had definitely grown up, and into a beautiful young woman. The promise of her girlishly innocent charms had filled out into the curves of fulfilled womanhood. The wide brown eyes were still the same, and she had not gained in height. The freckles that had graced her cheeks now danced across her nose and left the blushing cheeks alone. The shortened hair, once covered in a peasant's pink scarf, curled long and full down her back, caught up in a simple white ribbon. The flowing robes of a miko, red hakama and white kimono, only hinted at the filled curves beneath.  
  
"Miroku!" Koharu, ever free in her emotions, bound into his arms, hugging him tightly.  
  
What was a monk to do?  
  
The houshi's arms circled around the white-robed back, tangling in the long black hair as Koharu nestled her sweet face in the curve of his neck. Her scent, a pleasant odor of herbs and plants, surrounded him, and Miroku sighed at the feeling of the soft body against his.  
  
"Oh, Miroku! How I have worried over you these last years!" Koharu's whisper was heated against his neck, and Miroku only held her tighter in response to the words, his body comforting where words failed him.  
  
Kirara watched them with warmly glowing red eyes, but her tails twitched, and she rumbled something low in her throat before turning away to face the Lady Kaede, who stared at the embraced pair in some calculation.  
  
Shippo, caught off guard by Koharu's sudden appearance, suddenly remembered why tears had sparkled in his eyes a moment before. With a cry of returning anguish, he launched himself into Kaede's chest. The old miko grunted under the impact, even as her aged arms came up to encircle the kitsune cub. Shippo's muffled sobs dampened the white cloth of her kimono, and she patted the little fox child tenderly even as she turned away from Miroku and Koharu. Her questions regarding that pair would have to wait. Little Shippo needed her care and comfort right now, and she needs must find out why the little pup had thought Kagome would be here in the village, and not out hunting Jewel shards with the others.  
  
Miroku's head raised as the grey-haired miko went back into her hut, cuddling Shippo. Dust swirled as Kirara transformed back into her smaller form. She gave him a parting look out of red eyes and, with a dismissing flick of her two tails, went after the old miko and the kitsune cub. Miroku blinked at the neko's action, but then was distracted when Koharu leaned back away from his chest and small, herb-scented fingers touched his cheek.  
  
"Miroku..." Koharu whispered, love shining in her eyes.  
  
............................................  
  
From the fork of a convenient tree, InuYasha stirred restlessly as a chilling wind rustled the leaves of his chosen branch. The ends of his white hair brushed against the rough surface of the tree bark he leaned against, and he tightened his clawed hold on the fanged sword that rested in his arms. His eyes were hooded as he tried to peer through the darkened forest, imagining he could outline the distant castle that had been his home once, many long years ago.  
  
A small noise below him shifted his attention to the slayer who slept at the tree's base. Sango had been uncomplaining through the long journey that had diverted them into the Western Lands. Tired muscles had protested against him as she kept her grip on his back strong; she had known that he had been too enwrapped in trying to find Kagome to think about the ningen woman's own welfare. InuYasha felt a bit bad about that. The dark circles under Sango's eyes had told him volumes about the slayer's own denied exhaustion. InuYasha had pressed deep into the Western Lands before he had realized that Sango's fierce pride was the only thing keeping her awake.  
  
Once realizing just how tired Sango was, InuYasha had, with characteristic abruptness, stopped and called camp for the night. Sango had been too tired to do anything more than nod dully at him, her normally bright eyes weary. She had slipped from his back, and InuYasha had had to steady her wobbly stance with a clawed hand on her shoulder as her legs protested under the sudden need to use them. Sango had murmured a short thank you for his assistance, and then brushed his concern aside. Sheer pride had the slayer lurch toward the nearest tree on her own, carefully pulling the heavy weight of her Hiraikotsu from her back and laying it beside her. She had only paused to pull her kimono from the small pack she carried before wrapping herself in it and falling into exhausted sleep.  
  
InuYasha had made a short patrol of the forest around them, but was hardly worried. His stinking youkai brother kept the ancestral lands around his castle conspicuously clean of vermin. He was actually surprised that SesshouMaru hadn't shown up yet to challenge InuYasha's own presence there.  
  
But SesshouMaru could be toying with them, luring them to his castle for some deviously twisted plot. The only demon who could surpass his stupid half-brother for intrigue was Naraku---and that putrid mass of rotting youkai parts was often bested by the people he tried to deceive.  
  
InuYasha allowed a mocking smile to curve his lips over that satisfying thought.  
  
'No matter what that arrogant dog has planned, I can still take him out with my Tetsusaiga.' White claws caressed the braided hilt, and InuYasha's eyes glowed amber for a moment when looking at his sword. 'At least the old man gave me this. Must have showed some sense. SesshouMaru wouldn't have had as much use for the old fang as I do. Stupid youkai.'  
  
Thoughts of his arrogant brother shifted to thoughts of his arrogant brother with Kagome in his grasp. Fury surged along the hanyou's veins, and his caressing claws now clenched over the hilt of the sword. 'I don't give a damn what SesshouMaru has done to you, Kagome. I don't care what Kikyo said. You'll never be worthless to me. I'm going to rescue you from that stinking dog, and then I'm going to cut him into such tiny pieces that even the carrion crows won't be able to find a bite to peck at.'  
  
The fury was like one of Kagome's strange, carbonated caffeine drinks, filling him with awakened energy, and InuYasha burned with the desire to go. He gazed down impatiently at the sleeping taijiya below him. 'Damn humans and their weaknesses.' He fumed, as his mind whirled with what he might be able to do. He couldn't abandon Sango here. She might not be helpless---hell, she was a strong enough fighter, for a girl and a ningen--- but you just didn't leave your friends sitting on their thumbs. Besides, she might get really mad at him, and while Miroku might only get a slap from her ire, he kept getting her stupid katana poked at him like he was a damn pincushion.  
  
Well, he couldn't leave her, and he didn't want to waste any more time, either. The slayer should be allowed to sleep, he might need her help getting Kagome free. Someone had to pull the stupid girl out of whatever prison SesshouMaru had her in, and InuYasha might be too busy cutting the inu bastard into little pieces with his Tetsusaiga.  
  
'Well, nothing for it, then.'  
  
InuYasha heaved up on his haunches, and pushed free of the swaying tree limb. He allowed the sleeves of his haori to catch the slight wind he raised and cushion his short leap to the earth. As soon as his bare feet touched the ground, he stalked over to the sleeping Sango and hauled her boned boomerang over his shoulder. The thing was damn heavy, but no test for his strength, even if he was only a half-demon. He tied it across his back with swift, sure movements, having watched Sango do it many times. Securing the Tetsusaiga to his waist, he knelt down to pull the sleeping taijiya into his arms. Sango was so exhausted she just merely let out a muttered complaint at the change of her position, and then burrowed against the warmth of his chest. Her skin was chilled to his tentative touch, and InuYasha actually excused his man-handling of her by thinking it would be better if she slept this way, instead of on the cold ground. She wouldn't catch a chill, then. And slow him down. Right?  
  
He let out a slight grunt as he lurched to his feet, finding his balance with the added weight. Sango was hardly heavier than Kagome, but her Hiraikotsu was damn awkward. Shrugging his shoulders, he settled the woman in his arms. Ignoring the ningen, he took a running leap and launched into the air.  
  
Sango wouldn't be ignored, however. As the hanyou gained speed and jumped, the force of his leap swirled winds back on him, and the taijiya's long tail of black hair whipped up and smacked him sharply in the face. Growling, InuYasha shook his head, freeing the snapping tangle of hair. He jostled the sleeping slayer even as his body instinctively lengthened into the arc of the mighty leap that took them both up above the tree-tops. Sango merely murmured a single word against his bead-snapping chest, and burrowed closer to his warmth as her breaths evened once more into sleep.  
  
"Hentai..."  
  
InuYasha smirked. 'Must have been thinking about that stupid monk, Miroku.'  
  
As he crested the arc of his first jump, he looked down to gauge his next landing and take off. That tree, there.  
  
Smack!  
  
InuYasha's eyes flashed red and he growled again. Shifting one clawed hand under the taijiya's shoulders, he tangled his fingers into the long whip of silky black hair and held it firmly---and defensively---along the girl's curled body, using the angle of his supporting arm to wedge it under her---and out of the way of his face.  
  
He was so preoccupied by the damn slayer's hair, he almost missed the tree he had picked out as a jumping point. Cursing softly under his breath, the hanyou refocused his attention on leaping instead of defense.  
  
'Damn it, anyway!'  
  
A/N - Sorry for such a jumpy chapter, other characters were begging screen- time. I promise more Sess/Kag in the next one! 


	24. Chapter TwentyThree: Dignity

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
A/N - Yikes! Death threats! (Dodges bullets and thrown knives...) Okay, okay, here's the next chapter... (Thanks for the reviews, by the way! Some of them were hilarious!)  
  
FF.NET - I want to thank everybody who reviews on this site...I truly appreciate the time you take out to type me a few words of encouragement. Coolkiki2, I have followed your advice and am now allowing "anonymous" reviews...I hadn't realized before that I could! (Sheepish signs of a first fan-fic writer...) I do update, quickly, however, as I can't stand it when somebody doesn't! (I hate waiting!) But thanks again, to everybody who does wait for one of my chappies! More in a few days...I promise!  
  
Chapter Twenty-Three (Dignity)  
  
"Jaken do this and Jaken do that...I cannot believe that I, the exalted first advisor of me lord SesshouMaru, should be sent out AGAIN as a stupid ningen nanny...stupid, smelly, stinking ningens...I hate stinking, smelly, stupid---ACK!" Yellow eyes bulged to a new diameter in width as the imp nearly fell over from fright, his three-clawed fingers gripping desperately to his Staff of Skulls.  
  
"Hi, Jaken." Rin gave him one of her wide, gap-toothed smiles, popping up from behind one of the heavy tapestries that covered the stone wall of the corridor.  
  
"Stupid brat!" Jaken scowled, trying to recapture his besmirched dignity. "Don't scare me like that!"  
  
"I scared you?" Rin blinked, and then smiled again, before turning dizzy circles in a weird ningen dance around him. "I scared Jaken! I scared Jaken!"  
  
"Shut up, you stupid human girl!" Jaken hissed in affronted ire. 'Stupid ningen brat! I'm surrounded with them! Oh, me lord! What have you sunk to!'  
  
Rin stopped, one dirty, bare foot still raised in the air, her brown eyes devilishly delighted as she stared at him. Jaken eyed that dirty foot with a sour expression. Lord SesshouMaru would not be pleased that the girl had taken off her tami socks---again. He just bet that the stinking turnip had tossed off her sandals in the garden, and it would be HIS job to go find them and pick them up. Last time, he had to fish one out of the garden pond, and had ruined one of his best brown robes in the process. Even if the kimono had been cleaned, he knew that it still stank like wet fish.  
  
"Put your foot down, stupid child." Jaken hissed at her. "Why me lord thinks that YOU could be turned into a little lady---smelly human that you are---is beyond me!"  
  
Rin put her foot down, but wrinkled her nose at him. "I don't know why you keep saying I'm the one that smells, Master Jaken, when you're the one that smells like a dead fish."  
  
Jaken screeched in outrage, pointing the Staff at the atrocious little ningen brat. "How dare you! You little turnip! I don't smell! And like a fish...! I swear I'm going to tell Master just what a little brat you are! How dare you! Get out of here before I fry you to ash with my Staff!"  
  
Rin giggled, and spun in a circle, making the sleeves of her red- flowered kimono flare wide. "You're so cute when you get mad, Jaken!"  
  
'CUTE?'  
  
Yellow eyes bulged, and his mouth hung open, but he couldn't even squeal with outrage---his anger and shock were so much beyond simple fury at the girl's impertinence. Rin gave him an airy wave with one hand and skipped down the corridor, her bare feet pattering in odd counter-point down the stone walk as she disappeared.  
  
A slight, chilly breeze brought Jaken back to his senses. He shivered. That wind was just like SesshouMaru's wrath, and the Lord would come up with some new, inventive ways to torture his advisor if he lagged in his special duty.  
  
The Master was eerily cold and distant this morning. Jaken shivered, remembering the tight rein the Taiyoukai had kept over some rage that burned through him just beneath the cold surface. He, Jaken, should be delighted that, at last, his Lord was returning to his normally cold, ruthless self, but something was different. Lord SesshouMaru hadn't shown such...emotion...(another shiver)...since his father's death so many years ago.  
  
It was just awful. All that stinking emotion.  
  
It came from the Lord sullying himself with the presence of ningen. Emotional, worthless, stinking humans. They were to blame.  
  
Well, at least he could save the Lord from one of those stupid humans. And by the Lord's command. That was a reassuring sign: that his great and awesome Lord wanted one of those stupid, insidious human whelps out of his castle, and at all speed.  
  
Jaken's pensive worry turned into a wicked smile of delight. 'And me Lord gave that wonderful duty to me! Surely, his trust and respect has returned to this humble, but most deserving, servant.'  
  
With a lightened heart, he scrambled down the darkened hallway. He didn't even mind the long, weary walk to the southern wing that had made him grumble with the indignity of it all just before that stupid turnip Rin had shown up to scare him with her dirty feet. He really must see to getting that irritating girl into a bath. SesshouMaru had no tolerance for dirt in his home---even though he WAS allowing the dirt of humanity into these pristine walls.  
  
But that was soon solved.  
  
He hurried his steps, and was nearly panting by the time he finally reached the wench's guarded door. The guard---a lowly Ash-demon with his ugly pink eyes and his ashy hide---was standing in front of it, a tall spear in one hand and a sword at his side. Not that the lowly demon needed any weapons other than his sharp teeth and claws, not to mention his ear- splitting bellow and stupid fireball that was no comparison to his own beloved Staff of Skulls, but the Lord always outfitted his guards with weapons. Sheer waste, really.  
  
"Let me by." Jaken said irritably, impatient with underlings.  
  
The guard just gave him a bored look, before slowly---and deliberately, the stupid ingrate---moving aside.  
  
Jaken's eyes narrowed at the intended slight. Just wait until he told the Lord about the lazy buffoon! Just wait until the guard found himself defending the night soil pot in the servants' kitchen, keeping freeloading flies from the smelly contents! Then...then!...he would see what foolishness it was to court me Lord's distinguished first advisor's wrath!  
  
The imp frowned, eyes nearly slitted with vexed indignation. He pushed the door---and kept pushing. It wasn't opening. His eyes closed as his beak curled with distaste. 'The indignity of it all!'  
  
He turned his head, to see the stupid guard's double-row of sharp teeth grinning at him, the sickeningly pink eyes whirling slightly with amusement at the imp's predicament.  
  
"Open this door!" Jaken hissed, outrage boiling through him. He thudded the end of his Staff against the stone floor in emphasis.  
  
"Of a certainty, advisor." The thing actually huffed a whispered laugh at him while a claw casually peeled off a paper seal that had affixed the door. Jaken glared. 'Just you wait, you ungracious oaf! I'll make sure you'll be guarding the tumble bugs in the manure bins for your insolence!'  
  
He must have actually said the words allowed, because the guard gave him a mocking half-bow, and said courteously (at least with his mouth, although his stupid pink eyes said something quite different), "I apologize, Jaken-sama, for whatever way I might have offended your eminence."  
  
Jaken's ruffled pride was somewhat soothed by the officious words, although he knew full well that the ingrate wasn't truly sorry. "We'll see." He gave the guard a darkened glare before once more pushing on the door---which thankfully opened this time without protest.  
  
His anger over the guard's ill treatment still wasn't abated, and it was with some added ire that he squawked angrily for the stupid ningen. "Girl! Where are you? Show yourself!" Picking up his (fishy) brown robes with a disdainful sniff, he stalked from the empty sitting room and through the arch into her bedroom.  
  
The girl was lying, asleep, on the futon, her ugly white body curled in on itself. Tangled black hair couldn't hide some of the bruises and scratches that marred her arms. Jaken's sensitive beak wrinkled. He could detect his Lord's distinctive scent among the foul odors that made up a human's stench, and his eyes bulged in out-right shock.  
  
'How disgusting!'  
  
His poor Master! That stupid human wench had thrown herself at his august Lord like the filthy scraps she was! And, of course, SesshouMaru had used her---why shouldn't he? Even if the Taiyoukai sullied himself with the human leavings of a hanyou half-breed, he had needs, didn't he? But Lord SesshouMaru had probably come to his senses, and probably THAT was why he was so angry---that he had stooped so low as to mingle with a ningen whore. Jaken fought back a shiver of revulsion. 'At least me Lord has realized his error, and is sending the filth away!'  
  
With a disgusted glare, he struck his Staff down onto the stone with force. The loud noise echoed through the stone room, and the filthy girl was suddenly awake, her ugly brown eyes blinking once before awareness had her shrinking back across the bed, away from him. 'Good! She should fear me!' The imp smiled maliciously.  
  
"You! Whore! Get up and get dressed! You are leaving!" The girl blinked at him. Stupid ningen. Jaken grabbed at a white yukata that was slung over the back of a nearby chair. He pinched the fabric between two claws before throwing it with a wrinkle of his lips at the girl. She flinched away, but the cloth fell short, slithering to the floor beside the bed.  
  
"Get dressed." Jaken hissed. "Me Lord SesshouMaru has seen through your disgusting ways, human whore, and has ordered your removal."  
  
The girl was finally showing something other than stupidity, but Jaken didn't like the flare in her brown eyes. "Toad!" She hissed at him.  
  
"Shut up, you filthy rag! Hurry up and get dressed!" Jaken squealed back at her. He banged his Staff against the floor to highlight his ire. "There is an escort waiting for you outside! You're leaving!"  
  
"I can't get dressed with you standing there, you smelly toad!" The girl actually glared at him. Him!  
  
"I am not a smelly toad!" Jaken screeched back, hating that stupid acronym. Why anyone could think such a handsome specimen of an imp as himself could be a wart-ridden, goggle-eyed toad was beyond the utter limits of sanity, and yet people were always insulting him with it!  
  
The girl just glared, and Jaken realized that while she might be a stupid, smelly human who had just dared to insult him, she still had a point. Giving her a withering glare, he turned and stalked out of the bedroom. Although he turned his back, he refused to leave, and he heard the rustling as the stupid girl got out of bed and into the yukata. She was certainly taking her time about it, and his impatience was growing in strength. Grumbling at the girl's delay, he finally couldn't stand it anymore, and whipped back around.  
  
"What is taking you so long? Don't you even know how to get dressed? Or are you too stupid a ningen for even that?" He squawked at her.  
  
The girl was dressed, but she was wincing as she stepped forward. A soft sound, something like a sad moan, escaped her lips, and she walked with mincing, awkward steps on shaking legs.  
  
Jaken let out an evil chuckle. "Can't walk, huh? Just what you deserve, you---" He let out a string of effective insults, calculated to humiliate and degrade, the helpful phrase "stinking little ningen whore", peppered throughout the entire oral harangue with just enough emphasis to really send home his message that she was merely dirt (and human dirt, at that) beneath his---and his Lord's---feet.  
  
He mentally congratulated himself that he could keep up the insulting oration the whole time she walked unsteadily toward him. He took evil delight in the darkening of her brown eyes, and the helpless rage that coursed through her weak, human body. This was beyond fun, and more than made up for Rin and the guard's awful assaults to his innate dignity as the Taiyoukai's first, and chief, advisor.  
  
He didn't stop his delightful tirade even when the girl came to stand in front of him, her head bowed so that her dark bangs covered her face. 'Good! Let the stupid wench know her place!' Jaken grinned mentally, even as he went on to describe just why his Lordship was well rid of nasty human whores who consorted with nasty half-human hanyous.  
  
A small hand shot out and grabbed his Staff with sudden strength. Shocked at the girl's action, Jaken stared, open-mouthed, as the girl casually flipped the Staff over, so that the Skulls were pointed down, gripped it with two hands, and...  
  
'Wha-What?!'  
  
...and swung it with all her not-so-frail human strength.  
  
Jaken sailed through the air, screaming in outrage as the impetus of her swing sent him flying across the sitting room. His screech was cut off as his face smacked into the stone wall, and his beak was nearly buried in his throat. He let out a gurgled moan of agony as his head felt like it was going to split apart under the abrupt impact, and he slithered down the hard, unforgiving surface to land in an undignified heap on the floor.  
  
The wooden door was opened speedily, and the pink eyes of the Ash- demon guard widened slightly as he took in the scene of furious human and sprawled, swirly-eyed toad-imp. The Staff fell out of limp fingers to clatter on the stone floor, and Jaken moaned piteously. But the traitorously evil guard didn't come to help his poor superior up and on his feet. Instead, he was actually bowing respectfully toward the stinking human girl and gesturing for her to precede him out of the room. The door slammed behind them, and Jaken winced as the sound pierced his throbbing head.  
  
He sniffled at the shame of it all, before returning anger stiffened his spine---and made him groan once more in sensitized pain.  
  
'Oh, the indignity of it all!'  
  
......................................  
  
He could not seem to keep the rage at bay.  
  
Part of his mind could step back and look at his dilemma with faintly sneering amusement. Him, the feared Taiyoukai of the Western Lands, famed for his ruthless self-control and pitiless nature, was having a hard time controlling the rage of his inu youkai blood. Another part of him seethed with anger that he would allow a mere ningen girl to affect him so much. Still another part growled at his incompetent handling of the whole affair.  
  
And yet another whispered a faint mournful loss of something precious to him, something he needed.  
  
'Ridiculous.'  
  
He dismissed them all---all the insignificantly pitiful thoughts and feelings that now surged and frothed in him, all on account of that accursed ningen wench. The grip of her humanity was insidious and poisonous to his integrity as an inu youkai. She had betrayed him, just as his father had been betrayed by his love of a ningen noblewoman.  
  
But he did not love her. He was saved from that awful degradation, at least.  
  
There was no way that he could ever love a ningen, no matter how much she might affect him. It was enough that the girl had broken the icy barrier he kept around his soul, that she had somehow pierced the tight control he had always maintained over his own fiery blood as an inu youkai. He was SesshouMaru, Taiyoukai of the West.  
  
That did not pacify his inner rage.  
  
'Why? Why did she call out that filthy hanyou's name?'  
  
He sneered in self-recrimination, sharp fangs glinting in the dull glow of the dying fire of his study. As Lord, he should not care what one pathetic slip of a human girl cried out in the middle of her lust. He did not love her, and he should not care.  
  
But he did.  
  
Eyes flashing with red rage, he swept the table-top of his desk clear with one angry slice of his claws, sending books, papers and ink in a spinning arc to crash against the floor. The fury thundered through him, and he wanted to tear and rip and claw his way out of it, away from it. Blood. He needed blood...death...destruction...release...  
  
With a snarl, the Taiyoukai swept out of his chair and stalked to the opened windows of his study. The moon hung white and full, casting silver light on the approaching clouds that would soon smother it. There would be storms tonight---the Lord could feel the charged energy that hung in the advancing clouds, could smell the fine mist of heated rain that swelled the moon-kissed columns that built in slow, mesmerizing shapes. It was as if the world waited with bated breath, waiting for what he would do...who he would kill...  
  
'No!'  
  
Gold flashed over the red in his eyes, and SesshouMaru battled his own inner demons, stilling the seething hunger of his inu blood. THAT was the gift of his father. Mighty InuTaisho, great Lord of the Western Lands, had given his son---and, perhaps, his SONS---his raging, powerful blood.  
  
The blood that had, in the end, killed him.  
  
SesshouMaru would never allow the rage of the inu---the insatiable blood lust, the all-consuming hunger, the devouring need to dominate or destroy---to control him.  
  
And that was what he risked, allowing the tiniest crack in the armored shield he had erected---through sheer necessity---around his weaker, blood-lusting nature.  
  
He welcomed the coldness, the calm detachment, that suffused his mind, dousing his raging blood and allowing him to step away from the pain the girl had caused him. He wrapped it over his soul like a shield of protection. His eyes cleared, and he straightened. A wind came howling up the mountainside, stirring the long ends of his white hair that glowed faintly in the silver moonlight. The fire behind him flared at the gust, popping to life for an instant, and then dying again into its dull glow.  
  
He watched the clouds that now curled around the swollen moon, cutting off the silver orb and wrapping it in darkness. The air grew heavier, and SesshouMaru watched as a faint flicker of far-off lightening heralded the beginning of the storm.  
  
The girl was being sent back to her village, back to the hut of the dead miko's aged sister. He had worked for this, he had planned for it. InuYasha would discover the girl---and discover that she had been used and discarded like so much debris. InuYasha would know the humiliation of failure---failure to protect her, failure to guard her, failure to save her. SesshouMaru had contemplated his brother's despairing reaction with vicious pleasure, he had thought on how the revenge on his brother---pride for pride---would be the perfect weapon of punishment. He had looked forward to seeing his hanyou brother's face, once he realized just what, exactly, SesshouMaru had taken from him.  
  
SesshouMaru's golden eyes closed, as he felt the first heated drops of rain splatter across the opened windows of his study. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and the wind howled through the mountain crags.  
  
And now he did not care. 


	25. Chapter TwentyFour: Down

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
A/N: I started this story when I had only seen up to episode # 42 in the series (stupid, slow CN! Grrr!). I first based this fanfic on only those episodes, but I have incorporated other bits into this fic since then (i.e., when Sango mentions InuYasha not killing Kohaku when she was ready to). I am picking and choosing among different pieces of the anime plot- line to pull into my story, to maybe give them a different feel. Be warned, this is where my story will twist away from the original...not that it hasn't already... :P  
  
Chapter Twenty-Four (Down)  
  
"You can put me down now, you know."  
  
InuYasha barely spared a glance for the irritated taijiya he held tightly in his arms. Wind snapped the sleeves of his haori, and thudded the large boned boomerang strapped to his back. Daylight had long since crept its way over the now-steepening hills of the Western Lands, and he had kept a quick pace, carrying the slayer as she slept. He was determined to reach the fortress by nightfall---rescue Kagome, chop up SesshouMaru a bit, and head back into the forest before the coming of sunset.  
  
"InuYasha." There was a low warning in Sango's voice, and she squirmed imperceptively. She didn't like being held like a baby---she felt helpless and...well, she just didn't like it.  
  
InuYasha growled back at her, ignoring the woman's protests. If only she would stop squirming like that. It through his balance off, and he had had to make minor corrections all damn morning long. At least she had slept- --and soundly, too---for most of the night and well into the morning.  
  
Sango tensed again, and InuYasha really growled. "Dammit, Sango! You keep throwing off my---"  
  
Slight nails dug into his chest as she pulled the red fabric of his haori. "No...InuYasha, I sense something. Something strong. Some type of demon aura..." He could barely pick up her low whisper on the whistling wind of their passage. The taijiya's brown eyes were fixed straight in front of them.  
  
InuYasha sniffed delicately. "Demon...and blood..."  
  
"There's something..." Sango actually shivered, and InuYasha looked down a moment, his amber eyes surprised at the usually-strong slayer's reaction. Sango raised her eyes to his, the longer bangs of her black hair feathering in the breeze of their passage. "Let me down, InuYasha. We must fight."  
  
InuYasha nodded, sharply, even as his mind growled with impatience over it all. 'Damn it, anyway! This journey is already taking too long, and now we have to go and fight some stupid youkai trash, delaying us even further! I HAVE to get to that stupid castle before sunset. Damn it, anyway!'  
  
His legs automatically braced as they arched back down to the dense forest below them. The craggy foothills of SesshouMaru's lands were heavily forested on this side of the castle, and the youkai could be anywhere in that thick green jungle. He felt a limb snap under one foot, and he could hear branches scratching across the unforgiving surface of Hiraikotsu.  
  
"Careful with my weapon!" Sango actually growled at him, and InuYasha glared back at her, but the taijiya's attention was drawn further into the trees and not on him. 'She's the one that demanded to come along!' InuYasha harrumphed to himself, even as his feet hit the leaf-littered dirt. His hold loosened over the girl, and Sango wasted no time scrambling out of his arms. She was jerked back by her long hair tangled in one of his claws, and InuYasha cursed as he freed her hair. Sango's glare wasn't pleasant.  
  
She held her hand out for Hiraikotsu, and InuYasha shook his head, grumbling, as he unstrapped the accursed boomerang off his back. Sango took the heavier weight with practiced ease, and lifted it over her shoulder. "Come on." She said, turning her body and stalking through the inter- twining underbrush.  
  
InuYasha gave the taijiya's back a sour look, but his claws were already grasping for the hilt of his Tetsusaiga as he followed her into the brush.  
  
He ended up taking the lead, his sensitive nose leading him right to the spot where he smelled blood. Old blood, dried blood. 'Why are we wasting time on this stupid demon! The blood I smell is hours old! Damn it, anyway!'  
  
"InuYasha." Sango's harsh whisper was right behind him. One of his ears perked back in her direction, although he kept his attention ahead. He could hear something rustling in the trees, something large, and foul. He tensed, claws tightening on Tetsusaiga.  
  
With a protesting groan, the large tree in front of them was ripped out by its roots. InuYasha jumped backwards, free of the flying earth, one clawed-hand hauling Sango with him. Sango ducked behind her Hiraikotsu as dirt and rocks flew down on them. InuYasha covered his face with the red fabric of his fire-rat robe, even as his other hand jerked Tetsusaiga free, the fang flaring into white fire.  
  
'What the hell...? What sort of demon can DO that?'  
  
A hoarse, disharmonic chuckle reached his ears, blocking out the sounds of the giant tree being flung like so much matchwood to the right by a purple, three-clawed hand. InuYasha's amber eyes narrowed as he took in the huge form in front of him.  
  
Easily three hanyou's high, the monster was a dark purple in color, fanged teeth grinning below blood-red eyes. Two horns, almost pearlescent in color, sprouted just above a greyish-white mane. The youkai actually seemed hump-backed, as if the weight of his massive arms and chest caused his lower body to curve under to support them. The thing crouched atop a small pile of human corpses, the remains of its earlier feast cracking under the hugh claws of its feet. A tail whipped back and forth, casually uprooting another, more slender tree with a swipe of its powerful tail.  
  
"Inu-Ya-sha." A thin tongue, although easily the size of his whole head, slid out between sharply pointed rows of teeth. The voice came as if from the belly of the monster, the deep resonances actually making his ears flatten.  
  
"Yeah? What? Who the hell are you?" InuYasha was never one to sit back and wonder when the fight would begin. He stepped forward, his clawed toes seeking purchase in the uprooted dirt, the fanged sword whistling as he brought it to bear, two-handed, in front of him.  
  
"Ahh...you think to chop me in half with your Tetsusaiga." The youkai's grin widened, and the red eyes glowed. "You think that I am too big and should be cut down to size, is that not so?"  
  
'Wh-What?'  
  
"Now, you are wondering what I am." The laugh huffed down from nearly twenty feet above him. The red eyes blinked. "I am Goshinki. Sent by Naraku to kill you, half-breed."  
  
"Naraku!" Rage tore through the hanyou's mind. His nose told him the right of it. The purple youkai was covered in Naraku's stench. With a yell of fury, InuYasha raised his gleaming sword up and raced at the monster, his legs kicking him up toward the demon's chest. As he whipped around, bringing Tetsusaiga to bear, ready to cut a neat swath down the demon's right shoulder and into his chest, a huge, clawed hand batted him aside as if he weighed nothing. InuYasha's yell continued as he flew back through the air, smacking into the trunk of a tree. His eyes widened at the pain of the impact and with the sudden thought, 'He knew exactly what I was going to do! He can read my mind!'  
  
"Stupid hanyou." The resonant voice snarled at him. "You think to cut me with your pitiful sword. I can hear your thoughts even as you think them."  
  
There was a whoosh of forced air between them, and Sango's voice began its yell. "Hirai---"  
  
"Taijiya." Red eyes glowed, focusing on the angry woman in pink- touched black armor who stood between them, her boned boomerang beginning its first swing before it left her tensed hand.  
  
Sango jerked, her weapon stopped in mid-motion. She had overheard Goshinki's smug words to InuYasha, and she wasn't foolish enough to let go. Her mind desperately worked, trying to think of something to slip past the hideous monster. One of its claws scraped against the dead bones his foot rested on, and a hollow skull, most of its flesh neatly wiped clean by devouring youkai jaws, clattered down the pile.  
  
"Little taijiya. So alone. You think to trick me with your hidden blades? Or, perhaps, your poison powder?" A huffy laugh made Sango's eyes narrow in controlled anger. "You forget. I am made from Naraku, and your pitiful poison will have no effect on me!"  
  
"Hey, you! Ugly!" InuYasha yelled, brandishing his sword again. He had used the youkai's preoccupation with Sango to pull himself from the tree and rush forward again, to stand beside the slayer. He could feel a few ribs broken from the tree's impact, but it didn't slow him down. Injuries that would have a mere human groaning in made only made him angrier. "Why don't you pick on a real demon?"  
  
The hollow laugh bellowed down from above. "A real demon! You!" The monster jumped up with incredible speed, his footed claws spraying bones and rotting flesh in all directions as he launched himself in the air.  
  
"Run, InuYasha!" Sango called out, diving for the underbrush. InuYasha hesitated a moment, before the darkening shadow of the descending youkai made him lunge to the other side. Twigs snapped in his hair as he dove through them, cursing as his body rolled out of the way of impending flattening.  
  
The youkai was incredibly fast, almost as fast as his stupid half- brother, SesshouMaru. InuYasha dodged a swipe of curling claws, and jumped over the whipping tail as he faced behind the crouching monster. He could see the darker marks of a purple spider---the burns matching the ones on Naraku's very back---crawling across the humped arch of the demon's spine. That very mark set him to grinding his teeth, and with a yell of fury, he brandished his Tetsusaiga once more, his feet giving him a running start as he leapt to slice the spawn of Naraku across his wide back.  
  
Goshinki merely stepped out of the way, as if he was casually avoiding the sting of a small flea, and his massive hand once more batted InuYasha out of the air. InuYasha could not help the angry holler of pain that followed his spinning crash into more trees.  
  
"Hiraikotsu!" Sango took the chance to fling her boomerang, and her braced arm forced an extra kick into the spinning weapon. Goshinki merely laughed again, and a clawed foot nearly smashed the taijiya into the brush-- -except that she did an acrobatic leap back, away from the weighty claws.  
  
The boomerang sang its way back. Goshinki merely avoided the spinning death, and it crashed into the trees, away from Sango. InuYasha growled as he heard the demon's taunt. "So pathetic, taijiya. I would expect better from you. Your thoughts do you no credit. Your concern for the hanyou is rather touching. Do you think I should tell the insipid half-breed just what you really think of him?"  
The slayer's katana was out of its sheath and she screamed a resounding battle cry as she crashed out of the brush. InuYasha took the opportunity to jump from his own crash-site, his sword humming. He could sense the vortex of winds that made up the purple youkai's aura, and he nearly laughed in delighted anticipation as he felt his own demonic winds rising up.  
  
'I'll kill you, you stupid spawn, with the Wind Scar!'  
  
Goshinki turned to meet the oncoming hanyou, a taunting chuckle on his fanged lips. "You think to use the Wind Scar, InuYasha. How pathetic you are!"  
  
The demon was momentarily distracted as the taijiya's blade bit into his tail, and his shout of rage and pain trembled the trees around them and echoed off the craggy hills above. Red eyes flashing, his tail jerked up, taking Sango with it. She cried out, wrenching her blade free, and did a graceful flip in mid-air to avoid the whipping return of his snaking tail.  
  
'There!' InuYasha nearly howled in triumph at the brilliant flash of light that formed between the two glowing winds of youkai aura---Goshinki's a sickly green, his own a flaring blue-white with touches of red. 'Sango's distracted him enough for me to use the Wind Scar!' He leaped up, his father's fang humming with resonating power.  
  
"Foolish hanyou! Think you I am so easily distracted!" Goshinki roared at him, and InuYasha's amber eyes widened as the demonic winds dissipated between them.  
  
'What? How?' Determination scoured through him. 'All right, hellspawn! If I can't use the Wind Scar, I'll just cut you into tiny pieces!'  
  
Both hands clenched on the flaring sword, and he reversed the downward cut into a sweep that would split the youkai's fanged mouth in two, neatly severing his head in half.  
  
His arms were nearly jerked out of their sockets as sharp teeth caught the curved blade of his Tetsusaiga in a steely grip. As the fangs ground into the sword, the sword let off a moaning ring of dissonance.  
  
InuYasha's eyes widened in shock as a fine crack appeared in the fanged blade.  
  
................................  
  
"Koharu." Miroku shook his head in disbelief. "I still can't believe that you are here, in Lady Kaede's village." His blue eyes stared at the pretty girl---woman---who was still plastered to his side. Koharu would not let go of him, as if she needed to keep in touch with some part of him at all times. She had urged him to walk with her, into the fields beyond the village, where they could talk in private. She had kept to his side, her small arms around his waist, her head tucked on his shoulder. She felt warm and solid, and very womanly.  
  
"Houshi-sama." The black-haired woman giggled. Miroku idly noted that her trilling voice had deepened a little over the past three years.  
  
'Quite nice, really.' A part of him wondered how that giggle would sound if he tickled her in certain spots over her tender, young flesh. Would it turn husky with need? Or would it squeal in outrage?  
  
He allowed his robed-wrapped hand to casually slide down the trim waist to rest lightly on one flaring hip. If he had even tried that with Sango, she would have whacked him over the head with a bucket by now. Or Hiraikotsu.  
  
Koharu merely giggled again, her voice going husky.  
  
'Ahh...' The blue eyes brightened momentarily.  
  
"Miroku..." The girl shook her head at him, her freckles dancing across her nose in the sunlight. She withdrew from his side, even as one hand slid down his muscled arm to hold his hand. She showed no fear when she touched the prayer-beads that kept his Wind Tunnel under seal. Her fingers laced with his, and she tugged significantly. "This is a pleasant place to talk." She flashed him a brown-eyed smile, and the monk allowed her to lead him up the small incline of a hill, the deep grass soft under his sandaled feet. A spreading tree---young but strong---provided a bit of shade for them to duck under.  
  
Koharu sagged to her knees, and Miroku followed her soft tug on his hand. He sat cross-legged beside her, and Koharu let go of his hand, only to lean comfortably against him. Her soft black hair tickled his nose, and he breathed in the spicy, herbal scent of her.  
  
'Must think of something else...must think of something else...'  
  
"Why are you here?" He asked bluntly, seeking anything to keep his mind from the lovely specimen of womanhood who clung to him.  
  
The girl giggled again---truly enchanting. "Houshi-sama, I have been looking for you."  
  
Miroku's breath caught. "You...you have?"  
  
"Of course!" Koharu turned her head, flashing him an enigmatic smile out of the corner of her laughing brown eyes. "You know that I have loved you since I was eleven years old, since the time you first were nice to me. Me! A lonely orphan-child."  
  
"Um...uh...yes..." Miroku felt a bit lost at her blunt words. Koharu had never been anything than bluntly honest about her feelings regarding him.  
  
The head turned back to face the road they had walked down. The fine black hair tickled under his chin. "Remember? You asked me to bear you a child, then."  
  
'Must think of something else...must think of something else...'  
  
A faint blush heated the white cheeks. "And then I saw you, again, at fourteen. When I was running away from the Keeper of the Oil's lecherous son."  
  
Miroku's shoulders tensed, and he tightened his arms around her slight frame of his own accord, trying to offer some comfort. That bastard had tried to rape Koharu, but the helpless little girl had beaten him over the head with a stick of firewood. 'Not so helpless, hmm, Koharu?' His amused sense of the ridiculous teased through his mind.  
  
"You saved me, again, from that man's clutches."  
  
'Well, not precisely. As I recall, it had been Sango and InuYasha who actually did the rescuing...'  
  
Koharu turned in his arms, her brown eyes full of tender light. She clasped his hands in hers, her fingers lacing through his. "Miroku...I was ready, then...to bear you a child. And yet..." She looked down, her expression hidden by her carefully-cut bangs.  
  
'The Wind Tunnel.' Miroku's hands tightened on hers, the prayer-beads digging into the small palms.  
  
"I...I was afraid, houshi-sama." Koharu kept her head down, refusing to meet his eyes.  
  
"Koharu..." Miroku began, but she cut him off.  
  
"No, wait. Let me finish." A brief flash of brown eyes, and then her head fell down again as she stared at their entrapped hands. "That demon...that little girl with the white hair and the black eyes..." A slight shiver went through the girl, but her hands tightened on his, not wanting him to comfort her yet. "She took my soul, and made me do things...awful things..."  
  
"Koharu." Miroku forcefully freed one of his hands---the unwrapped one---to touch his fingertips to her delicate chin and raise her head up to meet his warm, forgiving gaze. Tears sparkled in the brown eyes. "Kanna is a powerful youkai. She was created from the Void by Naraku, the same demon who cursed my family with the Wind Tunnel three generations ago..."  
  
"You do not understand." Koharu whispered.  
  
"I do. I understand it was not your fault." Miroku said tenderly.  
  
A watery smile greeted him. "I know that, Miroku. I regret my actions that day...I almost killed you." A shiver went through her, and Miroku tried to hug her comfortingly against him, but she squeezed his wrapped hand, making him pause.  
  
"No, houshi-sama. It is besides that. I hated being so easily controlled...so easily violated...it was almost like the Oil Keeper's son, but different...I was so fearful and afraid, and you left me with some protection, but...but..." She rushed on, blinking a bit and ducking her head. "But it wasn't enough."  
  
Miroku's fingers tightened on hers. "Your village...it was attacked again?"  
  
Koharu shook her head, although her words were different. "Many times. But we fended them off. The youkai are restless in that part of the province."  
  
"Than what was it, Koharu? Were you not happy there, with the headman and his wife?" Miroku asked softly.  
  
"They were wonderful." Koharu smiled softly, her eyes distant. "They treated me as a treasured daughter. I learned so much..." Her eyes closed on sweet memories that Miroku ached to share. His own memories of a drunken priest and a tortured father were not always comforting to a lonely monk.  
  
"They're dead." Koharu faintly frowned. "Nature's time. They were elderly." She looked back at him, her brown eyes focusing and intense. "I had an offer of marriage---"  
  
"You refused?" Miroku's brows went up in surprise, and Koharu shook her head at him, smiling at his chagrin.  
  
"I have only ever loved you, Miroku. No one else will ever do."  
  
"Koharu---" A note of warning came into the monk's voice. He had warned her before, that in loving him there was too much risk for sorrow, more than any woman should have to bear. With his cursed hand, and Naraku still un-avenged, he would never be free to love anyone...to protect anyone...  
  
The girl put a finger to his lips, her eyes warm and full. "Shh...I know what you would say, and hear me first." Her finger stroked softly along the firm line of his mouth, and Miroku almost quivered in reaction to the tender caress.  
  
"I am stronger than I was. I have sought out the teachings of the priestesses, and I have presented myself to the Lady Kaede. She is growing older now, and while I might not have the powers of the miko, I have a deft hand with herbs and healing. My adopted okaa-san, the elder's wife, taught me many things in the short time I lived with them. It is my wish to stay here, and to help in any way that I can. If I cannot protect the village with any sacred power, at least I can heal the hurts and be the hands for the old priestess Kaede."  
  
"You...you are truly giving, Koharu." Miroku said, his voice warm with pride in the young girl---woman---who sat with him. She had matured and grown from the fearful, hungry little girl in the faded green kimono that he had met six years ago, into a strong, giving young woman with pride in her accomplishments and determination to see her way through.  
Koharu's other hand pulled out of his, until both of her palms cradled his strong face. Her fingers traced the outline of his firm jaw, tickled across the sculpted line of his lips. Her eyes were deep and trusting, the gift of her love shining in her warm brown eyes as she softly pulled his mouth down to hers.  
  
What was a poor monk to do?  
  
..............................  
  
Sango watched in horror as Goshinki's massive jaws trapped the curved blade of the Tetsusaiga. The sword rang with protest as the teeth ground down. InuYasha was jerking on the hilt even as the first cracks appeared in the blade.  
  
'He's breaking the Tetsusaiga!' Sango couldn't believe her eyes. The mighty sword, forged from the powerful fangs of InuTaisho, was splitting into two pieces under the mighty press of Goshinki's sharp jaws.  
  
"InuYasha!" She called out, her nerves frozen in horror as the powerful teeth snapped through the blade. InuYasha went flying down from the force of release, gripping the smoking, broken Tetsusaiga as it flared once and then died into the bent, rusted sword that hid its powers. The other point of the blade fell on its side, diminishing even as it flew down to the ground far below.  
  
"INUYASHA!"  
  
The scream tore from her throat as a huge, clawed hand ripped across the stunned hanyou as he flew backwards. The hilt of Tetsusaiga fell from wide-splayed fingers as the amber eyes widened in shock and then emptied of awareness. Blood, bright and red, splattered across the upturned forest floor. Sango could only watch in horror as InuYasha's dying body fell down into the torn brush with a solid thud of impact, the broken hilt of Tetsusaiga falling beside his outstretched arm.  
  
"NO!" Sango screamed, clutching her katana. She backpedaled into the trees where she had seen Hiraikotsu fall, and she frantically searched for the tell-tale arc of her weapon. Seeing a curved white edge laying inside tangled limbs, she clutched the end of her boned boomerang, heaving sobs of relief as she dragged her Hiraikotsu out of the torn brush.  
  
"You are foolish, taijiya, if you think you can slay me with that pitiful weapon." Goshinki's voice thundered around her. Sango held tight to the straps of her boomerang and the hilt of her slender katana. She might die in this battle, but she would die with honor!  
  
"Honor." There was a mocking, resonant laugh. "Honor is for the weak."  
  
"You will die, demon!" Sango screamed back at him, her sword tip pointing at the purple monster who towered above her, even as she whirled Hiraikotsu over her shoulder with her powerful right arm.  
  
"Sango."  
  
She froze upon hearing that voice. Her mind cried out in agony as her body tensed, stopping the action of her swinging boomerang.  
  
'No! No, oh no, oh no! Not him...anything but him..please...not him....'  
  
"Little taijiya..." Goshinki's mocking laugh made her spine tingle in dread. "Have you no greeting for our brother?"  
  
Sango's head turned, her brown eyes widening. A shaft of daylight sparkled on the wicked hook of a chained blade even as she breathed his name in searing pain and anguish.  
  
"K-Kohaku!" 


	26. Chapter TwentyFive: Wind Witch

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
WARNING: Dark imagery and language (though extremes have been blocked out) in this chapter.  
  
A/N: Thanks again for all the support and ideas. Shinigami Clara, again for Kagura, Akuma and Vyncent, great insight! (Vyncent...I might use your idea of Sess tossing Jaken off that tower...I wonder if I should name the chappie "Splat"...lol), Neo-Neko, the prologue in chapter one does throw the numbers off but thanks for the concern!, Amy Fushiyugi - I do not mind if you want to link this story anywhere, and thank you for the offer! To all else, thank you many times for the support and encouragement!  
  
Chapter Twenty-Five (Wind Witch)  
  
'KOGA!'  
  
Kagura froze, her mind screaming at her in terror, as her red eyes widened in shock upon seeing her most feared enemy right there in front of her. Her newly-found heart thudded in her hollow breast, and she could not escape the dull roar of fear that shook her to her soul.  
  
'Naraku's revenge!'  
  
The blue eyes, icy with rage and yet burning with the emotional fire of it, locked on her own.  
  
"Kagura."  
  
His voice, so harsh and deep, made her mind choke in terror.  
  
'RUN!'  
  
She was up and away like the winds she longed for, her bare feet scarcely touching the ground beneath them. Her hair fanned out behind her like a black, rippling wave, and she ignored the sobs of pain that were ripped from her as tendrils were pulled out by snagging branches. Her arms shielded her face from those same scratching limbs, and she bit back a scream as she felt the earth give out beneath her in a small depression.  
  
She kept her balance only by lurching hard on one ankle. Her left leg throbbed as the pain shot up from her foot. She ignored it, for the pain that awaited behind her was much worse than any she could do to herself. She heard a roar behind her, and dipped under the reaching claws at the last minute, her body dodging in self-preservation even as her mind fled in sheer terror.  
  
She dove to the left, and cried out as her full weight was put on her throbbing ankle, making her fall, but she rolled aside and lurched back on her feet, her toes digging in the humus for purchase. He was close, too close. She could not outrun him---even if he did not have the aid of the accursed Jewel shards embedded in his legs, he was a wolf, and catching prey was instinctive. She knew the futility of it all---and still she ran.  
  
Something howled---far too close---on her right, and she shied away, her body jerking as the blood pounded in her ears and each sobbing breath was torn from her throat in lung-piercing heaves. Her body jerked and she screamed as a single, clawed hand clasped around her throat. She twisted, seeking freedom. Her body turned, and her own, still-healing claws scrabbled weakly at the forceful hold.  
  
"Nooo...!"  
  
Her body slammed into something hard. The back of her head smacked painfully into the rough surface behind her. Colors burst behind her closed eyes, and her body would have slithered down the harsh surface in numbed shock, except for the pinning hold that encircled her neck tightly, holding her upright against the tree. Claws clenched, and she could feel a trickle of blood going down her white skin as the razored edge of one claw nicked her throat in passing as the fingers curled and jammed into the tree behind her.  
  
"(Witch) of Naraku!" The voice hissed at her, and Kagura could not stop the tremble that went through her pinned body. Her heart beat thunder, and her chest heaved with the constriction of air into her lungs. His heated breath was on her cheek, and the purple-poisoned scar of Naraku inflamed with the contact.  
  
"Why did you even bother to run, woman?" The wolf youkai baited her. Now that she was at his mercy, he was taking delight in her tormented fear.  
  
Kagura's lashes fluttered, before determination sliced through her soul. She would die this day, but she would not die groveling!  
  
Red eyes flashed as she opened them to stare coldly at the wolf- pack's leader out of the corner of them. Her left cheek was pressed against the scratchy bark of the tree behind her, and she couldn't turn her head for the grip on her neck. She watched as muscles tightened in the fur-clad arm that held her pinned to the tree behind her. His blue eyes showed loathing, hate and her guaranteed death in their deep pools of boiling rage. Lips were curled back over cutting fangs in a snarl as he taunted her.  
  
"You will die, Wind witch!"  
  
"Then kill me, you flea-ridden dog, and quickly!" Kagura hissed back at him, before choking as the hand around her throat closed her air off.  
  
"You will die, (witch), but not quickly!" Koga growled. Kagura's eyes closed tight as her weakening hands tried to push him away from her. The wolf youkai only laughed, his hold tightening until Kagura saw stars bursting behind her eyes.  
  
"K-Koga!" The startled cry was behind them, and Koga's head whipped around, his claws loosening a little as his attention was drawn away from her. Kagura gasped for breath, her hands coming up to pull at the one around her throat. The hard grip only tightened in response, and her body jerked.  
  
"What are you doing, Koga?" One of the other wolf-brothers---the grey- haired one, Ginta, appeared to the side of them, a look of horror on his face.  
  
"Is this your lady Yura?" Koga growled, menace in his harsh voice.  
  
"Uh...Koga...why are you...?" Hakkaku came up beside his wolf- brother. Kagura used the distraction to pull her knees up. Her right leg kicked out at the imprisoning body before her, and she twisted, trying to win free.  
  
Koga merely took her kick on his muscled thigh with a grunt upon impact. His attention whirled back on her, and his hand tightened on her throat until Kagura nearly passed out from the pain. She hung limp and gasping as his hold suddenly loosened, and her body crumpled to the ground in a white heap of torn yukata and weak limbs.  
  
"This is Naraku's (witch)." Koga snarled at her collapsed form. "Kagura of the Wind."  
  
"That ain't no Kagura, Koga." Hakkaku came up beside his irrate leader. "That's Lady Yura."  
  
"We rescued her, Koga. We found her badly injured and bleeding in the woods. She's not the Wind Sorceress." Ginta said, his eyes worried.  
  
"I'll deal with you two idiots later." Koga roared at them, before turning his icy blue glare at the crumpled woman at his feet. "For now, I'll deal with her."  
  
Kagura's weak body trembled with the pain, but she would not grovel. She forced her shaking arms to hold her weight, and she raised her head to glare back at the young leader of the eastern tribes. Her hair hung tangled and black in long waves over her heaving back and shoulders, partially obscuring her scratched face. The red eyes stared out at him in defiant rage, much as Naraku had at times. The resemblance sent the wolf youkai to snarling even as the wind youkai hissed back.  
  
"You are a fool, Koga! A weak, pathetic fool!"  
  
Koga's fist came swooping down, readying to crack the delicate jaw under his hot anger. The curled fist stopped a scant inch from the furious wind youkai, who could not stop the flinch that trembled her body. Her blood-ruby eyes did not close, however, and her lips curled with disdain.  
  
"Koga!" Ginta and Hakkaku cried out together in shock at their leader's rage-filled actions. Koga would never hit a woman...would he?  
  
"Take that as a warning, you miserable little (witch)!" Koga snarled at her, before his fist came crashing down to the ground in front of her splayed hands. The ground shook at the impact, and Kagura's fingers tightened in the dirt, as if seeking an anchor.  
  
"Kill me now, or do you lack the courage to kill a defenseless woman?" Kagura hissed at him, urging him to end her pain, and quickly. She did not want to experience the humiliation of her body's treacherous reaction to pain...Naraku had taught her all to well to fear the break down of her spirit. So much was gone, and she refused to give more to her most hated enemy.  
  
Koga's blue eyes narrowed, and his lips curled back, but, instead of snarling back at her, he laughed---a hoarse, mocking laugh that made Kagura's eyes close. "Defenseless? You?"  
  
A wolf whined in uncertainty, and Ginta stepped forward. "Koga." He pleaded.  
  
"You can't kill her, Koga!" Hakkaku's eyes were wide, and his palms sweated on his gripped spear-shaft. "That would be murder!"  
  
"Murder." Koga crouched above the wind youkai, his voice harsh with hate. "She murdered our clan!"  
  
"Koga..." Ginta shook his grey-head. "We don't know that."  
  
"I know that!" Koga roared, his anger fixed on his wolf-brother. "I watched them die! TWICE!"  
  
"If she's so powerful, Koga, why did we find her all alone, beaten and bloody in the forest?" Ginta asked desperately. Kagura's eyes opened wide, her red eyes focusing past Koga's landed fist to the grey-haired wolf- brother.  
  
'Is he...is he defending me?'  
  
There was a low, menacing growl from the wolf youkai crouched in front of her. His gaze swept back to stare at her---Kagura could feel the intensity of it on her trembling body. Her own eyes snapped back to meet his, the rubied depths defiant.  
  
"Did Naraku reject his (witch)?" Koga's harsh voice curled over her with the taunt. Kagura flinched, but her eyes never left his.  
  
Hakkaku was rubbing at the back of his spiked head. "Why would Naraku reject Lady Yura?" He asked Ginta.  
  
Ginta gave a half-shrug, his worried eyes still on the tensed pair in front of them. A small kernel of an idea was forming in the wolf-brother's mind, and he held on to it fiercely, as those kernels were a rare thing indeed.  
  
"Koga..." He said thoughtfully. Koga's head whipped around, pinning the wolf youkai with an angry glare.  
  
"What now?"  
  
"Would Lady Yur...Kagura...know where Naraku's castle is? We've been looking for it for years...could she...would she...know...where he lives?" Ginta hesitated, and then finished with a rush.  
  
Kagura's eyes widened before they narrowed again in calculation. 'That stupid wolf might even think I actually know where Naraku lairs...this might give me the chance to live for a few days more...and it might allow me to escape...'  
  
Cold blue eyes stared at her for a long, long time. Kagura flinched when his fist came up out of the dirt, and his open palm swooped aside to grab her own supporting hands from the ground. Kagura let out a whispered cry as her body fell back onto the ground. The wolf youkai yanked her arms up and twisted her form to lie on its side.  
  
"Rope." His order was steeled fury. Hakkaku hastened to obey, and Kagura found her wrists bound tightly together. The youkai chief was not gentle, and she had to close her eyes again as his jerking motions pulled her legs forward, ready to tie them as well. A hiss of air escaped her before she could stop it, as her twisted ankle throbbed at the sudden jerk on it.  
  
"Your ankle's broken." The harsh voice held nothing---no pity for her pain, but no delight in it either. Kagura was shocked when the youkai stood up, ignoring her legs.  
  
'He's...he's not going to bind my ankles?'  
  
Naraku would have. Naraku would have delighted in it, making certain that her ankle was made more painful with each twisted knot.  
  
"Ginta! Hakkaku! Pick this (witch) up, and let's go." The wolf youkai was already stalking away from her, growling his frustration, but ignoring her as his pack-mates hastened to obey. Ginta and Hakkaku would not look into her eyes, but their touch was gentle and hesitant as they carefully helped her up to her feet. Kagura kept her left ankle up from the ground, and it was a slow procession that made their way back out of the forest, her two guardians careful with her broken ankle and yet not daring to carry her. Koga stalked ahead, surrounded by anxious wolves who kept looking back at them and whining, and when forced to wait by their slow progress, he just stood there, arms crossed and back straight.  
  
Kagura's bitterness found its target, and even as she winced with the painfully slow steps, half-carried on the supporting arms of the wolf- brothers, she vowed, 'I will live, Koga, and when I can, I will run...'  
  
...............................  
  
It was Shippo who first spied her, lying all alone in one of the surviving groves of InuYasha's forest. He was so ecstatic at finding his Kagome, that he didn't really pay attention to the condition she was in. He just couldn't wait to feel her arms tightening around him. He didn't really notice the wince that trembled over her small body as he launched his furry self at her, crying out his joy.  
  
"Kagome! Kagome! You're here! I've been so worried!"  
  
Kagome was there, truly there. After a slight moment, her arms did come up to wrap tightly around him, and Shippo could feel her hot tears on his copper-colored hair, but that was okay, because he was crying too---and with joy this time.  
  
His call brought the others, and soon there was a small group crowding around them. Kirara---the one who first woke up in the darkened hut and hissed a warning of approaching youkai---came up and rubbed Kagome's side, her purrs almost as loud as Shippo's wildly beating, joyous heart.  
  
"Kagome." Something passed over Lady Kaede's wise eyes---well, eye, really---that Shippo didn't understand and, truly, didn't care to understand. He only knew that his Kagome had finally returned to him, and she was safe and sound and here! With him!  
  
"Kagome, don't ever leave me again!" He cried at her, hugging her shaking form tightly with his little paws. Kirara mewed in agreement.  
  
"Kagome..." Miroku was there, a wrapped hand extended hesitantly toward the girl. His blue eyes were darkened with concern and worry. And...guilt? Why would he feel guilty? Or concerned, for that matter?  
  
'Why should houshi-sama worry?' Shippo wrinkled his nose at him. 'Kagome's here and she's okay!'  
  
"M-Miroku." Kagome blinked watery eyes, and if anything, her hold on Shippo tightened. He didn't mind, he wanted to hug her until she never left him again. Kagome's sad eyes turned to the kind faces surrounding her...Lady Kaede, and Miroku, Kirara with her red eyes glowing, two of the village men who came with Kaede to hold torches up to light the way, and even on Koharu, who hung back a bit with the village men but still watched the girl with warm concern.  
  
Shippo's furry tail wiggled, and he gave Kagome an extra squeeze for reassurance. "Kagome!" He interrupted her, bringing her attention back to him. "Kagome, you are all right! I was so worried! We weren't sure what happened to you when that nasty demon took you away! And then that dead mud- ball came and said you were here, and so I hurried back, and you weren't! Oh, Kagome! I've been so worried and sad! Please say you'll never leave me again! I couldn't stand it."  
  
Tears sparkled in the brown eyes, and Kagome bent her head, hugging him again. Shippo buried his face in her chest as her black hair came forward to cover them like a curtain. He took in the scent of her, the wonderful smell of his Kagome---scent was so important to fox youkai, he still bore the memories of his own parents' unique, comforting smells. Scent meant home, and he had missed Kagome's so much!  
  
But...but something was different...  
  
"Kagome...?" He whispered the question hesitantly. "Why do you smell like that evil youkai SesshouMaru?"  
  
His Kagome trembled, and Shippo's green eyes widened in worried surprise as he realized that Kagome was shaking, and crying, and sobbing as if she would never stop. Shippo's little body shook as well, and his paws tried to hug the hurt from his Kagome, who would not stop crying for all that he hugged and sniffled with her.  
  
'Kagome! Kagome! What happened to you!'  
  
.............................  
  
A ghostly blue-white light surrounded the mirror that was presented to him. The dark lord ignored the small girl-form with the empty, soul-lost black eyes who held the mirror in white hands for his viewing.  
  
A slight chuckle formed in the air between them as the narrowed red eyes watched the battle with smug assurance. The surprised yell of pain from the dying hanyou was truly enjoyable. He watched with relish as the broken body fell to earth. The scream of the hanyou's name on the taijiya's lips was even more delightful. He watched with avid joy as the girl from the slayer's village finally saw her brother.  
  
'Delicious!'  
  
The pain and shock on the taijiya's face were arousing. His thoughts turned toward his own heated desire as he waved the mirror away from him. Kanna, his first incarnation from the Void, turned the faintly blue-white glow from his distracted eyes, and she bowed her head, waiting for his next order.  
  
Naraku wrapped the edges of his baboon skin closer, his fingers stroking the white fur as his red eyes grew almost dreamy. "Goshinki has proven to be a most surprising incarnation." He mused.  
  
Kanna said nothing.  
  
"Much better than that weak witch, Kagura." Naraku's claws tensed on the fur for a moment. The wind youkai should have been dead by now, but she wasn't. Perhaps that coarse, flea-ridden cur had some sense of cultured sadism after all. If it were he who had his most hated enemy in his hands, he would draw out their pain and torment for days, months perhaps. A feral grin shaped the cruel mouth.  
  
Speaking of pain...  
  
"Kanna." His voice, husky and dark, formed the Void's name with two, distinct syllables. His soulless incarnation merely waited for his command.  
  
She was another of his better experiments.  
  
"Bring me a girl, any girl. One of the peasant women that Kagiwake's men rounded up, perhaps. Just make certain she is young, and a virgin." His voice was like smoked velvet, and dark desire tightened through him. It would be an enjoyable evening.  
  
Kanna merely bowed from the waist, and withdrew through the shoji screen, the soft scrape of her white sandals the only sound in the room before the click of the closing screen silenced even that.  
  
Red eyes glowing, Naraku reveled in his triumph. A small smile played over his cruel mouth, and his thoughts turned toward the screams of heart- torn pain he had heard through the mirror. Another scream came from the innards of the house, as one of the terrified peasant girls was pulled from their holding cell. Naraku relished that scream. She would be...enticing.  
  
'A delightful evening indeed...' 


	27. Chapter TwentySix: Release

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
Chapter Twenty-Six (Release)  
  
Kagome rubbed dry, sleepless eyes. She sat huddled in Lady Kaede's hut, her back to the wooden wall, her legs pulled up as far as the sleeping kitsune in her lap would allow. The girl---whose face she remembered but whose name escaped, the one dressed in miko robes like Kaede---had given her a blanket, and Kagome had huddled into it, tears still silently running down her pale cheeks. For a long, long time, she couldn't seem to stop crying.  
  
The walk from the forest edge was a blur to her. She remembered Miroku helping her to Kirara's back, Shippo still holding onto her white yukata, crying with her, though the cub didn't seem to know why. He was just worried. Kagome hated the fact that she had lost control over her emotions in front of him, that she had made the poor little cub worry and cry for her.  
  
'Oh, Shippo. I'm sorry.' She thought at him, a small hand coming to pet the orange-red hair of the little fox demon. Shippo made a small, contented sound in his sleep, and burrowed closer to her warmth.  
  
Kaede had kept the others from coming into the hut with her, only allowing Kirara and Shippo to accompany her inside. Kirara had gone back to her smaller, kitten-sized form, her huge red eyes reflected orange and deeper scarlet by the banked fire as she sat beside Kagome, purring her comfort. Eventually, even the neko had slept as Kagome's sobs slowly subsided into hiccups, and then sniffles, and then dry tears.  
  
Kagome let out a long, sighing breath, exhausted but tensely awake.  
  
A slight scratching at the bamboo curtain made her turn her head. Kirara awoke as well, softly rumbling a warning before her eyes narrowed on the bent form of the old miko as she entered the hut. Twin tails flicked once, red eyes flashed on Kagome with a slight purr of reassurance, and then the neko laid her head down once again on her black-tipped paws.  
  
Kaede bent her greyed head slightly at Kagome, before turning to the banked fire and poking at it with a long stick. The old miko took her time, adding bits of firewood and making something up to boil over the flickering flames. Kagome watched her silently, her eyes dark holes in her white face. Kaede picked up a drinking cup, and poured water from the nearby jug into it. She added a sprinkle of dried leaves to the cup, and then came to stand before Kagome.  
  
Kaede extended the cup, her single, dark eye unreadable in the dancing russet light of the livened fire. Kagome bowed her head once in gratitude before she extended a shaking hand to take the offering. She smelled mint, and some other soothing herb that she could not name, as she brought the cup to her lips. Her first, tentative sip turned greedy as the cool, refreshing water trickled down her throat. She returned the cup, and Kaede poured her more water, this time without the added leaves.  
  
Kagome was still very much awake and aware, but the tense anxiety was leaving her, allowing her belly to quit tying itself in knots, allowing her tense muscles to relax against the hard, supporting wall behind her. She gave Kaede a weak, grateful smile as she handed back the cup once more.  
  
Kaede put the cup to one side, took the time to stir the boiling pot over the fire, and then settled herself---gingerly, Kagome could see that her old bones were tired---across from the girl's huddle against the wall. Kaede looked at her for a long time, and Kagome could only stare back at her in sad silence.  
  
"Ye have sustained much injury, child." Kaede's gravelly voice was whisper soft.  
  
A shrug rippled through Kagome as she tried not to disturb the sleeping kit in her lap. The scratches on her arms were already fading; the bruises darkening, but healing. There was nothing really wrong with her. Even the angry welt by her neck was fading to a pink crescent. She felt weak and drained, but even the soreness between her legs had dulled. There was nothing physically wrong with her.  
  
Work-worn fingers extended, touching Kagome's damp cheek. Kagome looked down, not wanting to see the wise knowledge in the miko's dark gaze. "Nay, child. The injuries are not of the body---though they are there. They are of the mind, and of the soul."  
  
A tear slipped out.  
  
"Ye must tell me, child." Kaede urged her softly. "Ye will not be able to heal the wounds until ye do."  
  
"I...I can't." Kagome whispered hoarsely, her body shifting uneasily. Shippo whimpered in his sleep, and she instantly froze, concerned lest she disturb the poor, exhausted boy.  
  
Kaede actually let out a dry chuckle. "Thy concern is ever FOR others, child. Ye must allow ye self at least as much concern FROM others."  
  
Kagome bit her lip, and bowed her head.  
  
Kaede extended her calloused hand once more, this time to gently lift Kagome's pale face up. "Tell me, child."  
  
The faint command in the miko's dry voice cracked Kagome's silence, and she poured out her heart in broken whispers. She told the old miko everything...everything that she had experienced and could remember from the day that SesshouMaru had attacked them in the woods with Naraku's youkai and flying insects, capturing her and stealing her away from InuYasha, to the awful memories of that stinking toad, Jaken, calling her all kinds of names until she could only see red, and had golf-balled him into the wall.  
  
Kaede was silent through her heart-torn recital, but the worn hands came to hold one of Kagome's. The chafed fingers tightened occaisionally, as if adding her support or sympathy throughout the whole long, fragmented tale.  
  
"What do ye remember, child? From that night?" Kaede prodded her softly when she faltered.  
  
Kagome flinched, not wanting to re-visit those awful memories, but Kaede's hands firmed on her own in reassurance. Kagome bowed her head, and determined to open the floodgates of pain. Her voice was hollow, and flat, as she said hesitantly, "It was such a blur. At times it seemed like a dream...I feel as if I am missing so much..."  
  
Kaede waited patiently, and Kagome stumbled on. "I...we...he...he had me come to dinner again, like that first time. Except it was in his...his rooms." She took a deep, shuddering breath. She went on, to tell in more detail, how the youkai lord had trapped her when she would have run, how he had kissed her shoulder---the mark burned for a moment in memory---and how she had been filled with desire and longing.  
  
"It grew hazy, after that." She said softly, a slight hitch to her voice. "But...I wanted him. I...I needed him."  
  
"He seduced ye." Kaede said flatly.  
  
"No...not exactly..." Kagome replied in misery. She blinked back sudden tears. "I knew what he wanted, and I wanted it too. Even with...even with..."  
  
"InuYasha." The name was sunk like a dagger between them.  
  
Kagome shivered in heart-torn pain, her whispered words harsh, even to her own ears. "I betrayed him."  
  
Kaede sighed. "Child, ye were not---"  
"No." Kagome pulled her hand out of the miko's dry palms. "No, I knew what I was doing, and still...still I did it. You could not understand, Lady."  
  
A small smile lifted the corner of the old mouth. "I am an old woman, child, but once I knew love."  
  
Kagome lifted her head, her eyes blinking with unasked questions.  
  
A worn palm patted her knee. "That is a tale not best told right now, child. Just know that I understand ye. But ye are not telling this old woman all of the tale YE have to tell."  
  
Lashes fluttered down again as Kagome bit her lip.  
  
"There were times that were wonderful." She said reluctantly. "He...he was not what I expected. He was not cold, or cruel...or hateful...or mean...well, until..." She shook, and the miko took her trembling hand once more in her own, the careworn fingers soothing against her skin. Kagome could not continue for a long, long time. They sat in silence, each waiting for the other to speak.  
  
Kagome finally broke down. "I...I remember little. I was sleeping, or mostly. I was so tired, but so...warm...I was dreaming, I think. I was dreaming about InuYasha."  
  
The miko's silence was warm and comforting, urging her to continue.  
  
"I knew I had betrayed him." Kagome said in a hoarse rush. "I was begging for his forgiveness...I was sorry...sorry for NOT being sorry..." A choked sob escaped her, before she pressed it back with tightened lips. It was some time before she could continue, before she could get her warring emotions under tight control.  
  
"I...I felt like he was there, hugging me. And I said his name. Thanking him for forgiving me. And then...and then, I woke up." A shiver broke through her.  
  
"Ye were not alone. He was there." Kaede's gravelly voice intruded.  
  
"Y-Yes. I don't know why...he was so angry...I...he..."  
  
One of the worn hands broke from hers to touch her dampening cheek. "Ye poor child." The miko murmured. "He raped ye, didn't he?"  
  
Kagome shook her head, violently. "How could it be rape? I was with him, willingly! But he...he..."  
  
"He used ye, and was not gentle." Kaede's eye closed in the wrinkled face, a long, troubled sigh escaping her lips.  
  
"H-He...he flung me aside, and called me a whore. InuYasha's whore." The tears were overwhelming her loosening control, and she could not stop them from roughening her voice, the pain in her heart overflowing to spill down her cheeks. She tried not to jostle the sleeping kitsune, but Shippo still felt her pain, and he was whimpering and stirring restlessly in her lap.  
  
Kaede bent forward, and casually scooped the cub up. Freed of his furry presence, Kagome could only curl in upon herself and cry once more, the soft, broken sobs shaking her whole body as she slid down the wall to lie huddled on the floor, her eyes closed and her chest heaving, her heart feeling as if it would burst under the aching sorrow.  
  
Kaede disposed of Shippo by giving him to Kirara, who had awakened during the girl's heart-wrenching confession and had watched them both with lightly glowing red eyes. The neko rumbled softly in her throat, her tails twitching to rest over the kitsune, who clutched the warm little kitten in sleepy confusion, before sighing at the familiar scent and falling deeper into sleep.  
  
Kagome was lost in her own pain, ignoring everything around her, until she felt the careworn hands drawing her with surprising strength into them. She clung to the old woman, sobbing out her pain and heartache and loss. Kaede soothed her with soft words and rocked her like a small child, until Kagome's sobs turned into soft hiccups and she hung limp with exhaustion against the woman's solid comfort.  
  
"Shush, child. Ease ye self. There, now..." Kaede's gravelly voice was easing her into numb acceptance, and Kagome suddenly wished, fiercely, that she could see her mother once again, take comfort in her mother's arms.  
  
'Oh, Mother. What could I say to you now?' She thought sadly, and shivered.  
  
"Ease, child. Ease." Kaede rocked her. Kagome relaxed, the exhaustion claiming her body, and her lashes fluttered, eyes closing.  
  
"I can take the pain from ye, child." Kaede's low words made Kagome tense and open her tired eyes in surprise.  
  
Calloused hands combed the tangled black hair from her cheeks. "Ease, child. Ease." Kaede smiled softly, like a mother with its babe. "I have the sacred powers. Not as strong as ye, but enough."  
  
"Wha...What are you saying, Kaede?" Kagome whispered, her brown eyes moving across the time-worn features.  
  
"I cannot erase the memories, child. But this old one can take the pain." Kaede whispered to her. One abraded palm opened, a small glow of pink-white energy forming along the bowed fingers.  
  
Kagome's eyes widened, watching in tired wonder as the glowing hand came up, making a slight sign of blessing and peace, before lightly touching her forehead. Kagome's eyes closed as she felt the warmth of contact between them. The glow slid over her eyelids, and she fell limp against the old woman's comforting embrace, as the warmth suffused her whirling mind, pulling the pain and easing her gently into sleep...  
  
.....................................  
  
Thunder crashed, and the darkened forest was suddenly lit by the sizzling light of an arrow from heaven. The lightening bolt cracked down to the forest below, and Sango could see in the piercing white light her brother's pale, hollow-eyed face.  
  
'Kohaku!'  
  
Even as her mind called out to him in lost sadness, her body tensed and dove backwards, away from the first swing of Kohaku's deadly weapon. The chain rattled as the sweeping hook swiped where she had stood but a moment before. With a practiced jerk, the young demon slayer pulled the weapon back to his waiting hand.  
  
Sango crouched in readiness, even as she felt the first hard drops of rain splattering down on her shoulders. The rain was unwelcome---it would make the footing slippery and uncertain, and the rolling thunder would drown out meaningful sounds during battle.  
  
Hesitation could cost you your life.  
  
Sango pulled Hiraikotsu forward, deflecting the second sweep of Kohaku's deadly blade.  
  
"Kohaku! It's me, Sango! Your sister!" She called out, even knowing with creeping despair that her brother---mind-controlled by Naraku---would not heed her cry.  
  
"Little taijiya, he does not hear you." There was cruel satisfaction in that deep voice, and Sango mentally cursed her forgetfulness of the youkai Goshinki. Purple claws reached for her, and Sango's arm flashed out, driving Hiraikotsu toward the mind-reading incarnation even as she leapt back, avoiding the rattling swing of Kohaku's scythe.  
  
'How the hell can I fight two of them?'  
  
Sango's mind whirled even as her body reacted, bringing her katana up to defend against Kohaku's weapon. Lightening flashed, and colors danced across her narrowed eyes as the writhing chain nearly snagged her sword out of her hand. With a flick of her wrist, she freed the weapon, and ducked under to avoid the return of the hooked blade.  
  
The purple incarnation who called himself Goshinki merely side- stepped, avoiding her boned boomerang. His laugh huffed down on her. "You are going to die, little taijiya...alone."  
  
Sango shivered, even as the rain swept down harder, plastering her hair to her head as wet rivulets ran down her back and sides. Night had crept across the forest as they had fought Goshinki; she had taken little heed as the rising full moon had given enough light for them to fight. InuYasha had taken the brunt of it, toyed with by Goshinki until the evil youkai had cut him down. Sango had rarely fought alone, there had always been her father and fellow slayers to help her and cover her. The village had been cleaved down to dust by Naraku's evil. And now, even InuYasha was...  
  
"NO!" She cried, her sword braced against Kohaku's scythe. The curved blade swung around with a jerk and cut along her wrist. Sango ignored the pain, her focus narrowing on one goal---to rid Kohaku of his deadly weapon. If she must die this day, she would see her brother freed from Naraku's control as well.  
  
"Your brother asked for that gift, taijiya." Goshinki's voice wrapped around her like the chain of Kohaku's scythe, seeking to pierce her determination even as his claws sought to pierce her body.  
  
'No! I will not listen to him!' Sango rolled out of the way of the rending claws.  
  
"AAH!" The demon roared as the sweep of Kohaku's blade made contact with his outstretched hand. The sharp scythe was buried in the youkai's palm, the glint of steel in flickering lightening showing against the curled reaction of three claws.  
  
Sango jerked back to her feet. 'Did Kohaku just defend me?' She asked in wonder, trying to blink the rain out of her eyes and peer through the darkness to see her brother's shadowed form.  
  
A sweeping katana, bent for her head, was her answer.  
  
Kohaku had dropped his chief weapon---or Goshinki had jerked it out of his grasp as the metal scythe buried itself in the youkai's palm---and the boy was now attacking her with his sword. Sango's heart wept even as the colder part of her, the trained warrior, secretly examined the evened odds against her. She was more mastered at the sword than her little brother, his Jewel-enhanced skills were still no match against hers.  
  
Blade rang against blade, and Sango ignored the creeping numbness of the wound on her arm. Thunder boomed across the sky once more, and she felt the echo in her ears as the sound drowned out all else---until a roar from above drove her to her knees in shock.  
  
"NINGEN!" Goshinki's claws swooped down, and Sango cried out as her opponent was suddenly swept up and away from her, his own yell of surprised pain lost in another growling rumble of thunder.  
  
"Kohaku!" Sango called out as lightening flared, showing the dangling body clutched in grasping, purple-blackened claws.  
  
"You will die for your mistake, boy!" Goshinki roared, the claws tightening as the boy jerked in reaction.  
  
"NO! KOHAKU!" Sango screamed, tears sweeping down her rain-plastered face. She ran desperately toward the towering demon, her katana clutched in numbing fingers as thunder crashed in the rain-swept night.  
  
.................................  
  
SesshouMaru had just turned away from the broiling storms, finally tired of the brutally primeval display. His thoughts turned to more prosaic matters...he would need to change his clothing for drier robes...he desired to feel the warmth of the bath water against his skin, instead of the chilly edge of rain drops. He would have to summon servants to clean up the mess in his study...  
  
The Lord froze, as the forgotten sword at his side pulsed once.  
  
'Tenseiga.'  
  
Sharp claws gripped the hilt of his worthless sword of healing in faint curiosity as the blade called again to him.  
  
'What are you asking of me?' SesshouMaru's mind demanded of the fanged gift of his dead father.  
  
His head jerked up and to the side, his golden eyes narrowing as his sensitive ears twitched faintly. He looked toward the storm-tossed window, his focus intensifying as he felt the draw of another blade, twin to his.  
  
"Tetsusaiga."  
  
There was a sharp knock on the wooden door that seperated his study from the rest of the castle. SesshouMaru growled low in his throat as his attention was jerked back to the room.  
  
"What is it?" His voice was cold and sharp.  
  
The door creaked open, and an ugly little green face, with a bruised, swollen beak and bulging yellow eyes peeked in. A rustle of brown robes and the clatter of a staff, and the toadish imp was in the study, prostrating himself on the floor.  
  
"What is it, Jaken?" SesshouMaru's voice was icy with impatience.  
  
"F-Forgive me, Master!" Jaken groveled, before peeking up at him. "M- Me Lord, I have...have...sent away the girl."  
  
"What else?" The demand cracked between them like a whip, and the imp flinched.  
  
"Me Lord!" Jaken whimpered even as he scrambled to his feet. "Your poor servant has already suffered, please don't punish me more!" Three fingers tenderly traced the swollen beak that hung slightly open and off- center as his yellow eyes turned mournful. "That stupid ningen hit me!"  
  
"Jaken."  
  
The imp was back on the floor, his yellow eyes bulging as he smashed his hurt beak back against the stone. His voice was muffled against the ground. "M-Me Lord! Please! Forgive me! I had to tell you! There is a disturbance!"  
  
SesshouMaru fingered the wrapped hilt of his Tenseiga thoughtfully.  
  
Thunder crashed outside, and lightening briefly lit the interior of the study with flashing white light.  
  
"I will go."  
  
.....................................  
  
A soft pulse came from the broken hilt of the bent, rusted sword. Sharp claws glinted in the white brilliance of the flaring lightening that arced across the storm-tossed sky. The outstretched palm jerked as a pulse spread through them, the chilled fingers curling briefly as a blood-red light flashed across blank amber eyes.  
  
Blood. He needed blood...death...destruction...release... 


	28. Chapter TwentySeven: Bark

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
A/N: Thank you so much for the support I receive on ff.net. Wicca, thanks for continued reviews, here and on S'Spark! (I hope you didn't knock yourself out and right into a hospital...) Bakabokken, I'm glad to see you again...I enjoy your comments! Fyyrrose: LOL! I almost fell out of my chair, and I hope to read more...=) I think I don't get that many reviews on ff.net because I post chapters too quickly, but s'okay! I hate waiting for updates myself! I truly appreciate the ones I do get, so thanks!  
  
WARNING: Some limes served---or alluded to by a certain hentai houshi. :P  
  
Chapter Twenty-Seven (Bark)  
  
The monk's shadowed blue eyes were troubled as he walked down the path, away from the village. He did not notice the people who waved to him casually from the fields, and he even ignored the pretty blush of a young peasant girl whose palm he had traced with an oft-repeated line about her fortune being tied to his.  
  
"Miroku!" The houshi blinked out of his clouded thoughts, and the blue eyes lightened as he caught sight of another pretty girl, this one dressed in the red and white robes Kaede favored. Of course, Kaede didn't do things to those flowing robes that Koharu did...  
  
A small smile touched the worried mouth, and Miroku felt his heart lighten as the girl caught up with him, slightly breathless and slightly sweaty---her bangs were curling across her forehead charmingly, and her brown eyes were dancing, just like the freckles across her nose.  
  
'A man could get used to those freckles.'  
  
Koharu gave him a soft peck on the cheek, blushing slightly at her daring, but still hooking her arm through his. Miroku had to bite back a laugh at the girl's sudden maidenly reserve. After yesterday, one would think that Koharu would be more than easy with her own feminine charms. She had certainly exercised them yesterday---and had even managed to surprise him.  
  
His blue eyes fell on her rosy lips, and he missed what she was actually saying to him. Those lips were a bit wide for true beauty, but that in itself was the beauty of it. He had almost lost his (religiously trained) control when that wide mouth had taken him inside of it---all of him.  
  
He was already hardening with the thought.  
  
"So, Miroku? Do you want to come?"  
  
Miroku blinked.  
  
"Um...what?"  
  
"Miroku!" Koharu gave him a playful push with her other hand, blushing. But then her brown eyes darkened and the hand turned soft and caressing along his deeper blue robes.  
  
"I love your eyes." She whispered. "They darken to match your robes when you're thinking of..." She giggled, and then leaned up to capture his mouth with hers.  
  
Shards, the girl could kiss.  
  
It was quite a few moments before Miroku could climb down out of hentai heaven and focus again on anything other than Koharu's...er...skills.  
  
Koharu gave him another husky laugh---ooh, he liked that---but seperated, though her hand clung to his. She tugged him along after her, and he half-hoped they would be finding another quiet spot to reacquaint themselves with her version of "I love you".  
  
"Later, houshi-sama." Her promise made him harder, but his dreamy smile fell as her words registered. Koharu shook her head, making the long tail of her black hair swing with the movement. He wondered what that long, silky tail would feel like, freed and wrapped in his hands. He might be able to pull a few surprises on her...  
  
"Come on, Miroku. They're this way." Koharu tugged on his hand again, leading him.  
  
"What are?" Miroku asked, suddenly curious.  
  
Koharu giggled. "You haven't heard a word I've said! I was going into InuYasha's forest to get some herbs for Kaede."  
  
"InuYasha's forest?" Blue eyes brightened with possibilities.  
  
Koharu gave him a knowing look out of warm brown eyes. "For herbs only!" She lightly scolded, though her fingers, wrapped in his, tickled his palm in acknowledgment.  
  
"Um, yes. Of course." Miroku smiled, a wicked gleam escaping Koharu's gaze as she turned her attention back to the path, and made a sharp turn at some particular mark that Miroku could not detect.  
  
Koharu had a nicely rounded posterior, and he was dreamily thinking of ways he could slide his hands over it as she bent over to cut plants she would need for Kaede...  
  
Koharu let go of his hand, dissolving his little fantasy, and bounded down a slight depression to disappear among some thickly clumped trees.  
  
'Hide and seek?' The monk mused, a smile playing over his firm mouth. The rings on his staff tinkled faintly as his hand curled tightly over it.  
  
"Miroku!" The siren's voice drew him in. "Come on! You're slow today!"  
  
'Well, if that's the way you want it...'  
  
With hopefully un-religious thoughts, the houshi followed the surprising girl into the dark copse. Much of the interior of InuYasha's forest had burned in the Ash-demon's fire, but plenty of nicely shaded, nicely PRIVATE, places could be found in the abundant forest's so-called outskirts. Those outskirts of forest surrounded the village, and you could still get lost in there, if you weren't careful.  
  
Miroku was always careful...well, mostly.  
  
There was no sign of the girl when he finally ducked under the first line of entangling trees. "Koharu?" He called out.  
  
"Miroku!" He almost jumped straight up as a rusty head and fluffy tail sprouted from his shoulder. Small paws gripped his robes, and big green eyes blinked at him innocently.  
  
"Hi, Miroku!"  
  
"Shippo!" Miroku scowled, his wrapped hand pressed to his chest as his heart pounded at the sudden fright.  
  
"Kaede sent me to find Koharu, to tell her that Kaede wanted some more herbs, and so I thought I might find you, and then I would find her!" Shippo said, smiling smugly at his apt deduction as he made himself comfortable on the houshi's shoulder.  
  
"What do you mean?" Miroku eyed the incorrigible fox cub with suspicion.  
  
"Oh, you two smell like each other." Shippo replied casually. "I was wondering about that. You must be spending an awful lot of time together, Miroku."  
  
"Er..." A flush slowly crept up the monk's face.  
  
"Miroku!" They both glanced sharply to the left at that call, and Koharu stood there, arms akimbo and fisted on her hips. "Where have you...oh!" Her brown eyes brightened. "Shippo! How nice to see you!"  
  
"Hi, Koharu!" Shippo leapt off of the houshi's shoulder and down to the ground. He bounded over to the girl, and scrambled up a convenient rock so that he could at least address her from a foot more in height than his own small stature allowed.  
  
"What brings you all the way out here? I thought you were with Kagome." Koharu knelt down, so that she could be on Shippo's level.  
  
"Oh, Lady Kaede wanted more herbs, and she sent me to tell you." Shippo said, self-important.  
  
"I'm glad you did find me." Koharu smiled.  
  
"It wasn't so hard." Shippo cast a sly glance in Miroku's direction. The monk's flush deepened.  
  
Koharu eyed Miroku askance. "Why are you blushing like that, houshi- sama?"  
  
"Oh, nothing." Miroku gave her a weak smile, even as his staff's rings jangled the lie.  
  
..........................................  
  
Darkness had fallen outside of the caverns of the wolf-tribe, and Kagura stirred uneasily on the furs she rested upon. With night, Koga would return. He had yelled as much to the other wolf youkai before speeding out from the caves, just after he roared that she was to be guarded with their lives---or he'd have them for youkai bird bait. The flinching cringe of the other wolf-brothers had told Kagura that the young leader made good on his threats.  
  
The wolf youkai had given her wide-eyed looks before ignoring her. She couldn't move far anyway. Even if her wrists were bound, the swelling of her broken ankle meant that she would not be able to do anything but limp herself outside in a feeble attempt at escape for at least the next two days.  
  
Ginta had been shoved outside for guard duty by an angry Koga, but Hakkaku had managed to avoid the wolf youkai's ire, and had ducked out of sight. Kagura had actually missed the somewhat reassuring presence of her two defenders. But Hakkaku had returned, with a grumbling Hideki in tow.  
  
The aging wolf-brother walked with a slight limp of his own. The greying healer was a gnarled replica of Ginta, and Kagura was still surprised at the resemblance. Ginta was so...young...uncertain...apologetic, almost. Hideki, now, he was a wolf of a different stripe entirely. He had no fear. She wondered idly if it was his more advanced years.  
  
Hideki had rumbled and growled and made gruff comments about raging wolf cubs who shouldn't be chasing poor defenseless females around while his calloused fingers had carefully examined her ankle.  
  
Kagura had stared at him in stunned disbelief as the old wolf had continued to grumble about impetuous wolf whelps making him continually heal poor defenseless women. The other wolf-brothers had given the elderly healer appalled looks, but seemed unsurprised by his fairly unflattering opinion of Koga.  
  
Hideki had set her ankle into a plastered cast of drying mud and clay, carefully pressing leaves at certain points around the unwieldy bandage. He had made her drink a foul concoction of what he called "numbing juice", and Kagura had almost sputtered at the liberal spirits that made up three-quarters of the nasty draught. Whatever was in it, she was soon feeling quite "numbed", and had blinked tiredly at his departing growls about being more careful.  
  
The numbness had allowed her to sleep, soundly, for most of the day. She had let the worries over her precarious situation flow away with the effects of inebriation. But when she reawakened, the numbing qualities of the juice had worn off, and her mind broiled with renewed fears.  
  
The mud cast had hardened onto the sandy floor just on the edge of the piled furs she was lying on. The cast made an impromptu chain anchoring her to the spot. She speculated idly how she had been able to sleep with her foot cemented in such an awkward position. Her muscles ached from inaction, and she rubbed her thigh distractedly as her red eyes roamed the darkening caves.  
  
Most of the wolves had disappeared. She wondered where they were--- but she could smell roasting meat on the dry breeze that circulated throughout the cave. Her stomach rumbled hungrily, and she questioned sourly if she would be given food, or if Koga intended to torture her with starvation.  
  
She didn't put anything past that mangy beast.  
  
A whine toward the front of the cave had her stiffen defensively, and her eyes narrowed as she saw the flickering orange-red glow of a lighted torch creep around the edge. The flame danced in her red eyes as it came closer, and she blinked the light back, until she relaxed, seeing Hakkaku's distinctive white spikes and tentative smile.  
  
One of the wolf-brothers who rested on the side gave him a warning grumble, but Hakkaku just shrugged past him. He carried a leaf-wrapped parcel in one hand, awkwardly balancing it while his other claws grasped the wooden torch precariously. He made a beeline for Kagura's spot at the back, and took the time to wedge the flaming torch into a convenient niche, almost dropping the bundle in his customary clumsiness.  
  
Kagura hid a small smile, slightly startled that she could even think about smiling. Ever since that day by the pool, when Hakkaku and Ginta had spied on her bathing, the pair of them had been trying to make her laugh. Usually Kagura had no use for their nonsense, but sometimes their innate buffoonery caught her off guard---like now.  
  
Hakkaku eventually got the torch righted and the bundle saved, and he gave her a toothily ingenious grin. Kagura nodded in thanks, keeping her expression guarded. The wolf demon scratched the back of his bald head before kneeling down and placing the leafy bundle beside her. Kagura eyed the package, and then eyed the wolf-brother.  
  
"Some, uh, meat, Lady." Hakkaku said, smiling nervously. "I brought you some meat."  
  
Red eyes narrowed briefly, before she nodded again.  
  
"I thought you were hungry." The wolf youkai actually blushed.  
  
"Thank you." The words felt strange on Kagura's lips.  
  
"Sure!" Hakkaku brightened. "If you want, I could get you some wa---"  
  
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?"  
  
Both youkai stiffened at that distinctive roar.  
  
Koga was there, snatching the poor, hapless Hakkaku by one shoulder and yanking him away from her side. Kagura cringed back, away from that icy glare, but she couldn't move far from her imprisoned foot. She brought her arms up, the rope abrading her wrists, and ducked instinctively as she heard a yelp and tumble of wolf-brother being sent flying across the room.  
  
"You. Woman." Koga snarled at her. Kagura dropped her wrists, and glared back at him, red eyes glowing lightly in the flickering torchlight.  
  
"What the hell are you doing to my men!" He roared at her.  
  
Kagura didn't flinch, though her insides were knotting in dread.  
  
"Koga!"  
  
"WHAT?" The wolf leader swung around, his long black tail of hair swinging like a whip behind him. Kagura winced at the volume he could achieve in just one word.  
  
Hideki limped across the cavern floor, his scowl deepening the craggy lines of his aged face. His whitening grey hair stood on end, and he actually growled, showing blackened teeth. Kagura's eyes widened as the wolf youkai, much gnarled and bent from old age, standing at least a good foot below Koga's tall height, came in between them. Hideki's arms crossed and his snapping black eyes glared up at his leader.  
  
Koga gave a good imitation of a menacing growl, but suddenly turned away, stalking from the caves. He gave a good yell at the dumb-founded wolf- brothers who had watched the entire scene. The echoes rung around the cavern, and had the whole tribe emptying out of it after their volatile leader in swift reaction.  
  
Once the last yipping wolf had departed, Hideki turned his scowl back on Kagura. She watched him with some astonishment as the dark look lightened into a black-toothed grin. One fang was slightly chipped, and she wondered idly why it had not healed itself. Even old youkai were capable of minor healing.  
  
"Ha! Took care of him!" Hideki chortled. "Young snot."  
  
Kagura arched a single brow.  
  
Hideki grumbled to himself as he set about checking her wounds. He had treated the scratches on her skin earlier, and he patted the healing marks with calloused kindness. He growled over her tied wrists, and rubbed some stinky salve into them, but only shrugged over the tight rope. Even he wouldn't dare Koga's anger THAT much.  
  
He was actually humming a bad rendition of a sappy love poem by the time he got around to her foot. He cracked the mud cast with practiced ease, and cleaned her skin carefully, pulling her ankle this way and that. Kagura hissed in her breath slightly, but the pain was far less than before.  
  
Gnarled fingers patted her ankle like a child on the head. "It's healing nicely." He rumbled at her in his gruff voice. "You're getting better, and healing faster."  
  
Kagura gave him a sour look. What good was that going to do her? Would she be able to heal faster after another run-in with rage-happy Koga?  
  
Hideki snorted. "Don't worry about him. All bark and no bite."  
  
Kagura gave him another look out of disbelieving ruby eyes.  
  
"I'll just bandage this, now." Hideki pulled white linen strips out of somewhere in his mousy brown furs and went back to humming as he worked over her foot. He made a poultice out of paste pulled from a jar in his robes, and then wrapped her ankle tightly with the bandages. The paste felt cool when he first smeared it on her skin, and then heated to tingly warmth as he tied the last white strip in place.  
  
"Let me see that scar." Kagura flinched back as a calloused hand pulled her chin to one side. She let out a mild protest as a claw traced the purple line on her right cheek. Naraku's poison had sunk deep into her skin, and pained her from time to time, as if to remind her of his anger at her failure.  
  
"Ugly, that."  
  
Kagura flinched, though her red eyes flared with repressed indignation. She knew, more than anyone, that she was marked for life with that ugly token of Naraku.  
  
The old wolf wheezed out a huffy laugh, letting her chin go and patting her other cheek. "Don't worry, girl. You're still pretty."  
  
Kagura glared.  
  
"Quiet though." Hideki chuckled to himself as he gathered his supplies. "Unlike that young whelp, Koga. He's loud enough to wake the dead."  
  
"I heard that, you old fart." A deep growl came out of the shadows of the cave's entrance. Kagura couldn't stop the faint shiver that coursed through her as the young wolf-tribe's leader came stalking into the caverns, his blue eyes like flecks of ice as he glared at them both, furred braces bridged as he stood, arms crossed and feet braced apart. A brown tail swished to the side in annoyance.  
  
A gnarled palm was laid on her shoulder, and the old wolf youkai squeezed slightly in reassurance. "All bark, no bite, remember?" He whispered hoarsely, before leaving her side with more dry chuckles.  
  
Koga glared daggers at Hideki's fur-covered back as the elderly healer started humming his bad tune again, his gruff voice torturing the poor poem even more than the content did already.  
  
Kagura raised her head proudly when Koga's blue-eyed glare swept back to stare at her. She allowed a small hint of disdain to curl her lips and she arched one brow in practiced annoyance. The wolf youkai gave her a dark scowl.  
  
"I don't know what you're doing to my men, witch, but I don't like it." He growled.  
  
Rubies flashed, and Kagura gave a markedly uncaring shrug of her white shoulders. "And what do you think I could do, you mangy mongrel, when I'm trussed like this?"  
  
The growl deepened to a more menacing level.  
  
"You're a fool." Kagura spat, uncaring of the consequences. She loathed the way the demon made her tremble inside with fear, and she wasn't going to let him see it.  
  
Light blue eyes narrowed and he stared at her for a long, long time. Kagura kept her face devoid of any emotion, but her red eyes were defiant. She braced herself when the wolf youkai sunk down to his knees beside her and eyed him with contempt.  
  
"And you're scared." A flash of fangs, and Kagura couldn't stop her flinch at his words, damn him.  
  
Rallying her courage, she lifted her chin and met him eye to eye. Her voice dripped scorn. "Of you? Hardly."  
  
He only gave her a dark chuckle.  
  
'Damn him!'  
  
A claw-tipped hand swept out and pulled the leaf-wrapped bundle between them. With a casual flick of sharp claws, the leaves parted, and the succulent smell of roasted meat---prime pieces carefully chosen by Hakkaku from whatever animal they had roasted in front of the caverns--- were scattered into an untidy pile. Koga picked through the meat and ate a piece with studied nonchalance.  
  
'Does he think such a petty ploy will work on me?' Kagura thought contemptuously. 'Fool!'  
  
Koga sat back on his haunches, and stared at her for some time. "I don't know why you are here, but---"  
  
Kagura's mouth curled into derision, and she turned her head away from him, determined to ignore the uncouth beast.  
  
Koga began to growl again, but then he cut it off abruptly. That made Kagura's head whip back around to stare at him warily. A fist dropped down to grab some meat, and the wolf youkai extended it to her. "Eat." He ordered.  
  
Red eyes firing with disdain, Kagura turned her head away again.  
  
She almost choked in surprise as a strong hand pulled her chin back, not gently, and forced her mouth open. Her gasp of outrage was cut off as a chunk of roasted meat was popped into her mouth.  
  
"EAT!" He roared at her, dropping his hand from her face and wiping it on his fur-covered thigh like he was soiled by touching her.  
  
Kagura spat it back at him, right in his face. The meat fell with a greasy splat to the ground between them.  
  
Koga blinked, and she smiled.  
  
'Take that, you mangy dog!' 


	29. Chapter TwentyEight: Blood Calls

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
A/N: This chapter has some dark imagery...I do promise future WAFF's, though! Special thanks to Athena and Vyncent for awesome inspiration!  
  
WARNING: Dark imagery in this chapter!  
  
Chapter Twenty-Eight (Blood Calls)  
  
Life tingled through his body, the call of blood shot through him, and then burned. Claws flexed in the muddy humus underneath him, and he was barely aware of the chilling rain that splattered across him. Cold fingers curled as warmth, and then heat, returned. Blank eyes flashed, and then reddened with rage.  
  
Blood...  
  
The call filled his mind, overwhelming his senses. Rage burned and flared through his lifeless body, and he was suddenly AWARE.  
  
It was near.  
  
Prey...  
  
Enemy...  
  
Blood...  
  
"Goshinki..." A growl formed in his throat as his body jerked and then throbbed.  
  
Blood.  
  
"GOSHINKI!"  
  
He snarled the name as he leapt to his feet, claws extending even as he felt his fangs lengthening. He sought death...death for the one who had slain him...called him...released him...  
  
Blood.  
  
Everything seemed filmed over with the red haze of blood, but it all was sharpened. His senses were heightened, and he could feel the very world around him breathing and living and dying. The animals of the forest had long fled the scene of the massacre, but the denizens of the soil still toiled beneath the leaf-litter that hid them, uncaring of what stirred above.  
  
Blood.  
  
Red eyes widened as he scanned the forest. THERE.  
  
The demon was turning, its own red eyes widening. Something was clutched in one three-clawed fist. The small form struggled for a moment, and then lay still as the claws tightened in shock upon seeing him.  
  
"InuYasha! You are alive!"  
  
Sharply pointed fangs grinned evilly, signing the youkai's death warrant.  
  
"DIE!" He roared, jumping up with unimaginable strength. Claws extended and cracked as he swept one hand back and flung it with force along the huge, muscled arm that the demon threw up to defend itself. He felt his claws connect, and he rejoiced with inner rage and glee as the blood he desired splashed out from the rending wound. His claws scraped across the tough, purple hide, digging through muscle and bone to sever the arm at the shoulder. His other hand, white claws gleaming, came up to stab along the demon's unprotected back as he spun in the air, his feet kicking off and away from the roaring beast.  
  
Blood!  
  
The severed limb fell to the floor with a crash and a weak moan that diverted his attention sharply to the right as his knees took the impact of his landing. He crouched, eyes glowing like flaming red coals as he growled at the intrusion.  
  
The hand he had dissected had been the one that had clutched something---someone---in its claws. That something was moaning, and then silent.  
  
"Kohaku!" A cry sharpened his focus toward a running black shadow that sped toward the form.  
  
"You should be dead, half-breed! I felt your mind go!" The demon Goshinki roared at him, and he snarled.  
  
Blood...  
  
And then he laughed.  
  
The purple incarnation of Naraku, towering nearly twenty feet above him, was actually flinching away from him. Delight tingled over his senses, sending his blood to racing, and his heart beat a steady tatoo of demand.  
  
Blood...blood...blood...  
  
"It is not possible!" The mind-reading demon snarled at him. "Your blood is almost that of a full demon's, and yet you are only a half-breed!"  
  
"My blood is not like yours." He grinned, red eyes glowing at the youkai's fear. He could smell it on the rain. Thunder cracked, and his ears flattened, even as he felt the exultation course through him. The fury of the storm matched his own.  
  
His grin widened, fangs flashing.  
  
"And your blood is MINE!"  
  
He was up again, both arms reaching for the heart of the demon pumping its life-blood throughout its enormous body.  
  
Goshinki roared defiance, and sharp teeth tried to snap him out of the air. His body arced away, and he racked his claws across the beast's snout and down his neck.  
  
The youkai's roar was of pain this time, and he delighted in it...lusted for it...  
  
As soon as his feet landed against a toppled tree trunk, he crouched and sprung again, once more REACHING for the life before him, desiring death.  
  
Blood...  
  
Lightening flashed across the sky, highlighting the silver-white hair that flung out behind him in water-soaked tangles. Youkai blood dripped from the daggers of his claws, and he desired more...much more.  
  
"DIE!" He shouted, the blood roaring in his ears.  
  
Goshinki tried to fend him off with another swipe of its three- fingered claws, but he easily avoided the strong swing. He twisted under the arm, using one hand to sink a hold into the howling youkai's wrist and flip over it, while the other severed the hand away from the purple monster's body. Harsh laughter taunted the panic-stricken demon, and he felt the blood call to him.  
  
THERE.  
  
His claws dug into the chest, seeking the heart...  
  
The beast's death roar rung throughout the forest, the impact of its dying body trembling the trees and rocking the ground beneath it.  
  
He leapt away from the body, the blood splattering down to the ground below to cover the lifeless corpse.  
  
His knees bent, taking his own impact as his clawed feet dug into the forest floor. A grin lighted the red glow of his eyes, and he laughed harshly, a growl echoing along the rough sound.  
  
"Goshinki..." He smiled toothily at the dead youkai. "That was fun."  
  
...........................  
  
"InuYasha?"  
  
Her whisper was lost in the crash of thunder. Her eyes widened in disbelief as she saw the white-haired hanyou actually leaping at Goshinki. She saw the half-demon's claws rake across the youkai's raised arm, saw the blood splash wide as lightening flared. The red-robed hanyou twisted away from Naraku's incarnation, and she watched in frozen horror as the severed arm fell slowly to the forest floor, her brother clasped in the tightened claws.  
  
"Kohaku!" Sango cried out, her heart in her throat.  
  
She heard a soft moan, and was running toward him, all thoughts of danger pushed aside. She dragged wet tangles from her eyes and nearly sobbed for air as she pushed her exhausted body into further strain, making it to Kohaku's side in mere seconds.  
  
She dropped her katana into the wet mud, heedless of anything but helping her brother.  
  
"Kohaku." She gasped, one dirty hand stretching out to him.  
  
The boy was firmly caged in three claws, his body bent awkwardly under the impact. His eyes were closed, and he was unconscious. Keeping tears at bay, Sango desperately felt for his limp hand, and searched for a pulse in his bony wrist. He was so small and delicate...just a little boy...  
  
'Oh, Kohaku!'  
  
She almost gasped her relief when she felt the light pulse that was beating far too quickly. Sango dropped his wrist and took hold of one of the claws that measured her height in its length.  
  
It wouldn't budge.  
  
"No!" She cried out, and a small fist beat against the unmoving claw before she rested her forehead in angry defeat against the same barrier.  
  
Thunder rumbled, and lightening flashed.  
  
"S-Sango?" A weak thread of sound reached her ears, and Sango jerked up, blinking rain out of her eyes.  
  
"Kohaku?" She fell to her knees in the mud beside him. His head and shoulders rested between the thumb and second finger of Goshinki's hand, his neck tilted at an odd angle.  
  
"S..Sango...I'm..." There was an odd whistling noise that accompanied his words, and Sango blinked back tears of joy. Her brother was alive, and speaking, and knew who she was! Naraku's control was broken once again, and this time, she vowed, she would see him freed forever!  
  
"Kohaku, stay calm. It's okay. You don't have to speak. I know. I'm going to get you free, and then we'll get you healed." She smiled at him, her hands running over his cheeks in thanksgiving, her fingers brushing aside the wet tangles of his bangs off of his forehead. His skin was so cold!  
  
"S...Sango...please...listen..." Kohaku coughed weakly. She hated that hollow, gurgling sound. She wished she could see him, see what damage had been done. He was upset, she needed to calm him. He was desperate to speak, and although she only wanted to soothe him and rock him to her like the babe he was, she knew he wouldn't calm until she allowed him to speak.  
  
"What is it, my brother?" She asked, tenderly kissing a wet cheek. He was so cold!  
  
"The...the shard...Sango...the Shikon shard...in my back..." He coughed again.  
  
"What of it, Kohaku?" She traced the line of his delicate brows. He was such a tender boy, with such a heavy load on his young shoulders. Part of what Goshinki had said was true, though it hurt to admit. Kohaku had desired to forget the awful blood he carried on his young hands, and Naraku had given him that much...forgetfulness. But in that forgetfulness, that blank slate of his mind, Naraku had been able to twist the beautiful soul that was her innocent little brother into something evil and methodical in its blood-letting. Naraku had caused him to do acts that had made the original blows he had dealt to their father and fellow slayers at Lord Kagewaki's castle pale in comparison. But if he could bear it, so could she. She was strong, and she would carry it all for him, do anything for him. She would help him. She would heal him.  
  
"The shard...the shard is...gone..."  
  
Sango froze.  
  
'No!'  
  
The Jewel shard in his back was the only thing keeping her brother alive.  
  
"Kohaku! Where is it? We must find it!" Tears blurred her eyes, and she wiped them furiously away. Lightening flared, and Kohaku's pale face, his eyes dark holes, looked like a bleached skull.  
  
'NO!'  
  
"K-Kohaku! Help me! Tell me where it is!" Her eyes scanned the chaos around them in desperation, looking for the tell-tale aura of energy that would surround a shard of the Shikon no Tama. She wished desperately that she had Kagome's ability right then; Kagome could have found the Jewel shard in a moment, but Sango lacked the superior senses that were part of Kagome's strange, untapped miko powers.  
  
"S-Sango..." The wheeze was stronger now, the rattle in his chest and the gurgle a tell-tale sign of blood filling his lungs. She could see a faint twitch in the limp hand that hung on the other side of imprisoning claws.  
  
"Don't, Kohaku! Please!" She shuddered, her soul crying.  
  
"S...Sister...please...I...want to..."  
  
"NO!" She cried out fiercely, her own hands clutching his face between them, willing her life into his.  
  
"S...So much pain...I...I...can't...stand...it..." Kohaku coughed again, and his voice was becoming weaker.  
  
"No! Kohaku! None of it was your fault! All of it was Naraku! You did NOT kill our father! It was Naraku!" Tears fell in a continuous stream like the rain around them as her fingers feathered over his pale cheeks, desperately trying to convey her love and forgiveness, her knowledge that it was not his fault, that it was hers. She was the strong one. She should have protected him.  
  
"No...you are not to blame, either..." Kohaku's hoarse whisper eerily followed her thoughts.  
  
"Please, Kohaku!" She sobbed, the strong beat of her own heart painful in her tight chest. If only she could give him her desire to live...there was so much left for him!  
  
"S...Sango..." There was a slight hitch in his whisper, and Sango froze.  
  
'Oh, please no...'  
  
"F...Forgive me..." The little body spasmed in a harsh cough, and then the air was sucked out of him, and he lay limp in the demon's grasping claws.  
  
Her call was wrenched from the very depths of her heart.  
  
"KOHAKU!"  
  
..............................  
  
He heard a soul-wrenching cry on the rain-swept winds, and Tenseiga pulsed once at his side in answer.  
  
'Kohaku...who is he?'  
  
A mental image of a young demon slayer...a boy no older than fourteen, and under the dark hanyou's control...flashed through his mind.  
  
'What has this boy to do with you?' He asked the sword, who was now silent.  
  
He traveled slowly, approaching the area with caution. The smell of death and blood hung thick in the air, and he could feel the aura of powerful demons fighting. How they had managed to escape his earlier detection was due primarily to the fact that he had allowed himself to be distracted by that ningen girl.  
  
Yet another reason for him to put her out of his mind. He could already see the disturbance she was causing, the threat she was---unknowing- --to his holdings. To be Taiyoukai, he had to be alert and ever vigilant.  
  
Else the vermin moved in.  
  
He growled softly, his blood heating. The inu youkai was so easily stirred now that it had been unleashed. He must exercise more control.  
  
The white glow surrounded him---to all others, he would appear as a simple globe of blinding light, a mere solid form of lightening, perhaps. The globe kept the rain off of him, and allowed him to see what he wanted. He scanned the dark forest around him, his senses heightened. He could smell the death that dirtied his lands, and he was not pleased.  
  
One of the demon auras abruptly disappeared from his seeking, and his mouth curled. One had triumphed over the other.  
  
It just made his task all the easier.  
  
.................................  
  
"Is this all there is to wear?" Kagome held up the hated miko robes.  
  
"Ye expect other clothing, child, to sprout from the trees?" Kaede's dry humor wasn't funny this morning.  
  
Kagome bit her lip. "I'm sorry, Lady Kaede. I just don't..."  
  
Kaede laid a calloused hand on her shoulder with understanding. "You worry about how the hanyou will react to you when he sees you dressed as a miko. You wonder if it will remind him of my sister, Kikyo."  
  
Kagome had to smile. The old priestess was pretty perceptive, for all that she only had one good eye.  
  
"I just hate it when he moons after her." Kagome let out a sigh of frustration, eying the white kimono and red hakama with misgiving.  
  
'Oh, well. Nothing to it.'  
  
It wasn't as if she could go back through the well to get some decent clothes. Sighing, she gave in to the inevitable, and pulled on the clothing. The hakama was far too big---and short---Kaede was a bit wider and smaller in both directions. The white kimono could only be described as huge. The sides were almost wrapped half-way around her back before she tucked them into the hakama, and the ends went well down her pants. Thank goodness the pants had the extra room.  
  
The white sleeves hung far past her wrists, and Kagome let out a mew of frustration when they kept getting in her way as she tried to tie the hakama tight to her thin waist. Kaede wiped a tell-tale tear from her eye as she laughed quietly.  
  
Kagome glared, finally giving up. She imagined a little thundercloud over her head as she gave the older miko a stormy look.  
  
Kaede still wheezed out a dry chuckle as she took over, firmly pulling the ties tight on the red sash. "I think we will have to do a bit of sewing." She smiled.  
  
Kagome sighed. She hated sewing, she had only learned when she had seen how many rents and tears rough-living in the feudal era put on her clothes. And those were only emergency, on-the-road repairs. She wasn't that good, and she knew with a sinking feeling that she would probably be sewing her garments together for the rest of her life now.  
  
'Oh, I wish I could visit a mall! Just once more!'  
  
Images of various giggling shopping trips with her friends ran through her mind, and she felt a stab of nostalgia for the modern age. What she wouldn't give for just one more day...  
  
'Enough of that!' She firmly put the longing away into a tiny, tucked away corner of her mind, and concentrated on finding her tabi socks. She couldn't see anything down below---the bulky fabric kept getting in the way.  
  
Impatient, she finally knelt down and spied the socks under Kaede's bench. Sitting cross-legged, she managed to pull the socks on. The split ends felt weird after her own Western-styled singles, and she wiggled her toes in them.  
  
"Now you are a true miko." Kaede said, some pride in her voice.  
  
Kagome blushed. She should be grateful for Kaede's thoughtfulness, instead of wishing for things she couldn't have!  
  
Kagome stood up, and gave the old priestess a bad bow. The hakama spiked up another two inches at the movement, showing her legs over the short tabi socks. The wide kimono, tucked in as far as could be, still sagged wide open, providing the old miko quite a view.  
  
Kaede cleared her throat, trying to look stern, but failing miserably. A twinkle sparkled in her black eye, and she calmly stepped forward, slipping a small pin from inside of her sleeve. She casually clasped the edges of Kagome's kimono together and hooked them with the pin. Kagome blushed, but couldn't stop a giggle from escaping her.  
  
"Perhaps we could do some sewing tonight?" She asked, her fingers twitching in the too-long sleeves that extended a good six inches past her stretching fingertips.  
  
"Not a bad idea." Kaede smiled, and patted her shoulder again.  
  
"Did I ever thank you, Kaede, for all that you have done for me?" Kagome's brown eyes were suddenly intense.  
  
The old miko knew that she wasn't only referring to her loan of the clothing. Her rough hand came to clasp the small chin.  
  
"No need, child. You are a gift to me already." She smiled warmly, and Kagome impetuously threw her arms around the old miko. The old woman stiffened for a moment in surprise, and then returned the gesture, her old heart warming. 


	30. Chapter TwentyNine: Alpha

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
WARNING: A bit of dark imagery, some language, and lime (sorta) to this chapter.  
  
Chapter Twenty-Nine (Alpha)  
  
Koga had spent his anger on the forest, pummeling his way through with his powerful fists, inwardly ranting about that stupid witch even as his hands smacked down trees and knocked large holes into the ground. The violence relaxed him, and he regarded his abraded knuckles with some satisfaction as he sauntered back toward the caverns.  
  
Night had long since purpled the skies above him, and he growled his way past the outstanding guards he had posted around the perimeter of their lands. No one would dare fall asleep tonight---they knew he was way too keyed up and testy. He had no patience for incompetence when he was in a fairly jovial mood, he definitely wouldn't put up with it when he was still on edge.  
  
He had fought his way to the alpha position of the pack, defeating many wolf-brothers to claim leadership, and WITHOUT the use of Jewel shards! He was strong enough without them, but with them he was unbeatable. He had to thump a few heads together from time to time to remind his pack of that fact, but they were a rough crew who needed shaking up.  
  
Most wolves didn't think much beyond their next meal or where they would put their shaggy heads to sleep, but Koga knew that there was more to living than just beating up the locals and chasing down food. He was made more for action than strategy, but he wasn't one to waste an opportunity.  
  
And that damn (witch) of Naraku's might give him the chance to finally track down that elusive foul hanyou and kill him.  
  
And then he would kill her.  
  
The blood-debt of his brothers demanded no less.  
  
He passed by Ginta, miserably guarding the manure trench, and scowled at the grey-haired wolf-brother. One of Ginta's two wolves whined, and rolled over on his belly in submission. The other ducked behind Ginta, tail between its legs. Koga let out a huff of impatience but stopped to allow the two wolves to come forward and lick his hands. He stared at Ginta coldly.  
  
"I'm sorry, Koga." Ginta mumbled miserably, ducking his head.  
  
Koga let out a long, impatient sigh. He hated it when his pack members acted all groveling and whiney, like omega dogs. They were youkai, after all.  
  
"Forgiven." He growled.  
  
A sudden smile broke through Ginta's clouds. "Really? Thanks, Koga! I couldn't just see you hurting poor Lady Yura, you know!"  
  
Koga scowled. He wasn't going to forgive the impetuous whelp THAT much!  
  
Ginta ducked behind his spear, but he still smiling hopefully.  
  
Koga relented, and gave him a good back-slap to show he was forgiven-- -for now. Ginta nearly fell over from the powerful swing, and his wolves turned their drooling attentions on him, making the young whelp laugh as he avoided their attack.  
  
Koga shook his head at their antics, and walked away.  
  
Puppy.  
  
He nodded sharply to the wolf-brothers guarding the entrance to their caverns, and spent a moment with the yipping wolves that always welcomed his arrival back in the caves with excited posturing and ecstatic body shakes. He growled a stop when one bushy tail too many whacked him in the face. The wolves immediately left him alone, knowing which growls meant business.  
  
He stalked further into the caves, nodding sharply to a few sleepy greetings. Most of the torches brought into the caves at night were snuffed out, but a few were still burning to light the way. Not that any wolf youkai needed much help seeing in the dark. But they made the dry caverns seem a bit more civilized. They weren't just a wolf pack hiding in a den. They were youkai.  
  
It was an important difference.  
  
He made straight for his sleeping furs, and scowled at the woman who was already slumbering in a huddled collapse on the far left side. He had his doubts about that stupid witch, but he didn't trust her with anybody else. He gave her white form a look of loathing before turning his back and stretching, making a bone pop in one shoulder. He chose the furthest edge away from the cursed youkai witch and flopped down.  
  
Closing his eyes, he allowed a small smile to curve his lips, thinking of the last woman who had been held captive on his sleeping furs.  
  
Kagome...  
  
What a sweet little morsel she was, even if she was a mere human. The girl was beautiful, and strong, and loyal. Loyalty was regarded highly by the wolf demon tribes. Loyalty was what kept their packs together. That, and a few hearty fists to keep the young bloods in line.  
  
Koga raised his arms to cross them behind his head to use as a pillow. His thoughts dwelled on the many charms of his woman. Kagome would see it his way one day. Just as soon as he killed off that annoying baboon and that even more annoying half-dog she kept tagging after, she would be his...  
  
A small sound disturbed his enjoyable contemplations of the future, and Koga roused out of them with an angry growl. Blue eyes opened, and he glanced sharply to the left, where the sound was repeated.  
  
What?!  
  
The stupid witch was twitching in her sleep, and curling into herself.  
  
Koga rolled his eyes and closed them again, deliberately ignoring her.  
  
Another whimper had him growling again.  
  
What the hell is it now? Can't that damn (witch) leave me alone for just one minute?!  
  
He scowled over at her, but his eyes widened when she jerked into a ball and moaned softly.  
  
DAMN IT!  
  
He was on his feet and stalking over to her, angry and scowling over her stupid interruption of his precious Kagome reflections. Hideki was suddenly there beside him, his gnarled features pulled into a frown. Koga glared at the aged healer, who ignored him to kneel by the wind youkai's side.  
  
"Nightmares, again." A calloused hand, claws greened with the plants Hideki was always mashing up into foul concoctions, was placed gently on one shoulder.  
  
"Nooo..." The moan was whisper soft, and both of Koga's thick black brows went up.  
  
"Here, now, girl." Hideki shook her gently. "Wake up, now. It's just another nightmare."  
  
Nightmare?  
  
"Stop...please, stop..." The damn witch was actually shying away from the old healer, and shaking like a leaf. Koga watched her with suspicious incredulity.  
  
"Come, girl. Wake up, now." Both hands were now pulling at the youkai, trying to keep her from curling back up into a ball. Black lashes fluttered against pale cheeks drained of color. A dark scar, running across one cheek, gleamed like purple blood. Koga's eyes fastened on that scar with sudden attention.  
  
Must have been deep. One part of his mind said idly, even as another scoffed and demanded to know why he should even care. The (witch) probably deserved it.  
  
Eyes opened suddenly, and the red pools were full of stark terror before they blinked away the grip of whatever nightmare haunted her. Koga watched her intently, sensing something that might be beyond his current understanding.  
  
"Come, girl. You are all right. You are safe. Don't worry now." Hideki was soothing her like a lost pup.  
  
"I..." The witch was only conscious of Hideki, she didn't acknowledge or was unaware of Koga's presence. "I'm sorry." She said softly.  
  
Was that actually a wet tear in her eye? Nah, must be the flicker of torch-flames.  
  
"No need, girl. No need." Hideki was actually patting her. "Was it the same?"  
  
The wind youkai let out a shuddering breath that seemed to come up from the bottom of her soul. "Y-Yes." She said, and looked down at her clasped hands, the rope tying them tight together. She suddenly shied, and looked up at Koga staring at her.  
  
Nervousness banished, and the red eyes flashed at him.  
  
"Enjoying yourself?" She sneered.  
  
Koga stiffened. His first instinct was to shake that sneer off her face. How dare she...  
  
But then he paused, a thought breaking into his angry reaction. He had already seen how the wind witch could twist her fear into a sneering defense. It was just her way of not wanting to feel helpless. By pressing his buttons, she hoped to invoke his rage and make him leave her alone--- like she had done earlier. Somehow she sensed that he wouldn't actually hurt a woman, well...deliberately.  
  
Now that he was on to her rather petty tactics, Koga relaxed and gave her a wolfish grin.  
  
Kagura stared a moment, and then dropped her eyes.  
  
'Ha!'  
  
Hideki made a small noise in the back of his throat, and he actually sent Koga a dark look. Koga just raised his brows again, suddenly filled with a faint sense of smug amusement.  
  
Hideki deliberately turned his back---the old Crack-Tooth---and drew out a very familiar-looking wooden cylinder. The old fart called it his "numbing juice", and the stuff had enough alcohol poisoning in it to lay a strong youkai low for a week...well, maybe for a few hours. Whatever the old wolf used to make up the rest of his vile draught was enough to make that same strong youkai want to retch with the stench of it. Hideki took whatever opportunity he could to press his famous "juice" on whatever wounded party he could, and Koga didn't envy the witch what was in store for her. Hideki never took "no" for an answer.  
  
Although the damn stuff did do its work.  
  
The wind youkai's nose twitched when Hideki uncorked the vile stuff, and even Koga made a face at the distinctive stench that rose to infest his own sharp senses. He wondered idly if the old fart used some of his reeking stinkweed in the potion.  
  
"Come now, girl. You need this stuff to take your mind off the nightmares. You need your rest---uninterrupted rest." A dark glance sent his way had Koga stiffen again, and he scowled.  
  
The witch made a face that would have been comical if Koga was in any mood to laugh, but she allowed Hideki to pour her a liberal amount in a mug he retrieved from his furry robes. That youkai could hide more crap in his furs than should have been physically possible.  
  
The face got worse as the woman drank the stuff, but she obediently swallowed the whole draft. Hideki gave her some approving noises like a mother wolf encouraging its pups, and patted her shoulder again.  
  
"You should be asleep in no time." Hideki said, standing up. Old bones creaked, and Koga's returning amusement was met with a black-eyed glare. The old wolf stooped down to pat the wind youkai's shoulder once more, and adjusted her to lie down, this time facing not the wall, but toward the center of the furs. Red eyes closed, although her body remained stiffly tensed, and she brought her tied wrists up to lay beside her white face with its purple scar.  
  
Hideki paused beside Koga, and glared. "You could at least untie her hands. She's not going anywhere soon, and she's suffered enough." His hoarse whisper grated on Koga's nerves.  
  
"Has she?" He asked just for the hell of it.  
  
Hideki gave him a dark scowl. "It's easy to be brave when your prey is all trussed up and helpless, isn't it."  
  
Koga growled, his light blue eyes narrowing at the old wolf's nerve. Hideki just gave him an old fart's shrug and limped away. Koga fumed, but stalked over to the wind youkai and knelt down on his haunches.  
  
Red eyes opened. "What do you want?" She hissed at him.  
  
Koga scowled, but didn't answer. He merely grabbed her wrists, ignored her feeble attempt to jerk her hands out of his, and used his razor- sharp claws to cut through the rope. Her hands spasmed as the blood rushed to the fingers, and he dropped them with indifference. She was still his enemy.  
  
Her eyes had widened as he cut the rope, and she shied away from him, her hands quivering with returning feeling.  
  
"Why?" She whispered hoarsely. Her red eyes were already clouding from Hideki's powerful potion, and she would soon be fading away under its influence.  
  
Koga sneered, he didn't have to explain himself to anyone, least of all HER.  
  
She blinked, fighting the pull of Hideki's "numbing juice". The flash of her futile struggle was almost comical, and he gave her a wolfish grin.  
  
"Do you plan to use me now, while I lay helpless?" She spat at him, eyes blinking back the glaze.  
  
'WHAT?!'  
  
Koga stiffened in outrage. Faint streaks of red stained his own light blue eyes, and he growled fiercely. "What the hell do you take me for! What kind of sick bastard do you think I am!" He grabbed her shoulders and shook his frustration and rage out on her limp frame.  
  
"Stupid witch! Do you think your charms are so great that I would take you---or any woman---unwilling!" He shouted right in her face, rage suffusing him.  
  
She blinked once in surprise, and then slumped in his steeled grip.  
  
Koga jerked as she sagged away from him.  
  
The juice had finally won the battle.  
  
Growling, he carefully laid her back down on the sleeping furs. Standing up, one powerful fist struck the palm of his other hand, staring at her with broiling rage.  
  
'What kind of sick freak does she take me for! She's twisted!'  
  
Or been twisted...  
  
Snarling, he turned away, his stomping steps quickening into a run as he hit the entrance. Wolves whined at him, and one of the brothers barked a question, but Koga ignored them. The damn witch had succeeded in sending him over the edge, and he needed to run off his anger, and NOW.  
  
Without a backward glance, he sped from the caverns, his Jewel- enhanced legs picking up speed until the dust whirled furiously behind him.  
  
.........................................  
  
He sniffed the air, suddenly tensing. The rain magnified the smells around him, and he detected the hint of something more.  
  
Blood...  
  
He sprang to the top of the purple demon's dead shoulder. Crouching, he scanned the destruction around him. Thunder rumbled, and his own blood surged with it. He desired more...much more. And the smell of it...fresh...untainted...was close.  
  
Very close.  
  
Lightening flashed again, and his glowing eyes focused on them.  
  
Goshinki's hand---the first one he had severed---was lying to one side, a body clutched in the claws. Kneeling beside the body was a dark form. Even in the blinding white light, the slight from appeared black as night. Black hair on black armor.  
  
Something tugged at his mind...he knew her...  
  
The blood call rose up and swallowed the faint wisp of recognition.  
  
There was blood on her, fresh blood, new blood. Still flowing.  
  
Blood...  
  
Enemy?  
  
No...  
  
Prey.  
  
He growled, the desire for blood singing along his senses.  
  
HER.  
  
His claws extended, and he grabbed her up as leapt past, his hands gripping her struggling body close. She let out a raging scream that made his ears flatten, and he growled. A white face glanced over her shoulder, back up at him, and she relaxed.  
  
"InuYasha..."  
  
The name was breathed back to him, and he growled in answer. That name meant little to him. His eyes glowed red, he could smell the pulse of life running through her, the hint of fresh sorrow warring with the scent of her womanhood.  
  
Her own eyes, black in the whiteness of her face, widened as she took in his altered countenance, and she tensed.  
  
"You're not him!" She cried at him.  
  
His growl deepened.  
  
"No!" She struggled, and his claws dug. His leap was taking them further into the forest.  
  
"Let me go!" She cried, and twisted. He heard a small ripping sound, of fabric tearing, and then something sharp sliced along his arm. He let go with a surprised roar of pain.  
  
Blood...  
  
HIS blood...  
  
The girl was twisting in his other claw, trying to win free. His hold tightened, and he snarled at her. His body curved around hers, and they plummeted back down to the earth. Somehow, deep down, he sensed her frailty, and used his own body to cover hers as they landed awkwardly, his balance shifting until they were rolling over. His wounded arm, where she had cut him, was forgotten in the blood lust, and he grabbed her other shoulder, sharpened claws digging but not piercing through her armor.  
  
With a tumble of legs and arms, they rolled to a stop in the churned mud, the rain falling harder around them. He ignored it, the fever in his blood filling his mind.  
  
"InuYasha! No!" The girl was writhing under him. He curled around her, growling, his red eyes seeking.  
  
Blood...  
  
He used the weight of his body to hold her still. She bucked under him, but her strength was no match for his. One clawed hand slid down her right arm, grasping her wounded wrist.  
  
Blood...  
  
The girl stiffened as he brought the wrist up to his mouth, his nose sniffing for the opened wound. He turned her hand over, so that the palm, wrapped in black and pink cloth, faced him. With a snarl of impatience, he used his fangs to rip the fabric away.  
  
The girl let out a soft cry as his fangs scraped her skin, and then she jerked when he found the wound and licked it.  
  
Blood!  
  
It sang to him...desire heated along his senses...  
  
He sensed that she was weak...she would die easily...he was careful, taking only a little, although he wanted more...much more.  
  
The girl struggled, and he felt something pierce his side. Snarling, he tore himself away from her intoxicating wrist, and used his other hand to claw away the hidden blade she had released earlier from her other arm. He threw the knife away, heedless of the bleeding wounds it left on his palm as he wrenched it away from her.  
  
He held her flat against the ground, a growl heating him. Dark eyes flashed, and she heaved. He could feel her deep breaths, and her strong heart...the beat called him...the blood singing...he could smell fear on her, but fear that was far less than even Goshinki's...  
  
She should fear him...  
  
Her lips parted, and she clenched her weak, fang-less teeth. She hissed defiance at him as she struggled.  
  
Defiance...  
  
Intolerable. He was youkai. Inu.  
  
Alpha.  
  
The urge filled him...to subdue...dominate...overcome...defeat...  
  
His glowing eyes riveted to her bitten lips, where a fleck of blood beaded in a dark drop as lightening flashed again, highlighting her pale face.  
  
Blood...  
  
His head bent, his tongue snaking over his fangs as the call surged in him...  
  
He froze, attention suddenly caught.  
  
Danger.  
  
His head turned, eyes glowing coals.  
  
THERE.  
  
He was up and away, somersaulting away from her to face his new enemy with an angry snarl.  
  
Taiyoukai!  
  
A/N: A cliffie! Bra-ha-ha-ha! The next chappie is being written now, so don't worry too much! A few notes to divert the attention: Thanks go to Wicca and Akuma for some awesome idea-threads you jump-started for me. Fyyrrose, I want my InuYasha and Naraku back! MINE! (Although I can quite accommodate myself with Sessy...hentai grin). There have been a few problems with my mailing list, and some of the email addresses are coming back un-sent. I will only put down the first names, but please email me with new/correct addresses if I have the wrong spelling down at Reviews, comments, flames, ideas, or just ha-ha's can be sent to that address as well, and I will respond to all! If any other people want to be added to the mailing list for updates, let me know!  
  
Tom/Patricia (sbc offline?) Sheraine (sbc offline?) sweetcherryblossom (unrecognized) jazngurl (unrecognized) 


	31. Chapter Thirty: Complications

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
A/N: Slightly lemony. (ff.net: Lemon sliced to lime). Thanks for all the reviews! Love 'em. My email address didn't appear on two of the posted sites in the last chappie, so here it is: Inufanashaaol.com. Thanks go to Amy Fushigiyugi, who captivated me with her "Defy Not the Heart" and spurred me on to some hentai fun. Pallas and Vyncent, thank you very much for your encouragement, and I will proceed! Fyyrrose... O.O ...you might have to do the Naraku one-shot...he's a little o'er the top for me...but I would love to read your version! (He can keep your keys...for now... :P) And Sango WEAK???!!! Puh-leaz! But that's why it's edited on ff.net...so you can avoid any embarrassingly revolting scenes for your reading entertainment. Some hentais can't get enough... ;P  
  
WARNING: Lemon Served! No one under 17, please! (Lime on ff.net)  
  
Chapter Thirty (Complications)  
  
"A woman's breasts are a work of art, and a truly religious man should pay homage to their beauty."  
  
The girl beneath him giggled as his words whispered over her white skin, making the flesh goose-bump in reaction. One rosy nipple caught his eye, and he raised a brow in smug amusement as it puckered, begging for a kiss.  
  
He was ever amenable. He was ever ready to give...and receive...  
  
The giggle turned into a husky laugh, and he hardened further. That laugh was like a siren's call to his blood.  
  
His tongue paid homage to her breasts, and Koharu's laugh turned into a throatier moan.  
  
'Even better...'  
  
The other breast was begging for his attentions, and he was never stingy. Lavishing kisses across the white valley, his mouth whispered over the crest and sought the crown.  
  
"Miroku..."  
  
Her voice could breathe his name in three sexy syllables that delighted his ears. His mouth covered the bud, his tongue teasing it until she clutched him to her, her back arching under his attentions.  
  
"Come here." Her eyes were heavy-lidded, and sexy as hel---well, a religious man shouldn't thank that word---as sexy as...  
  
Her hands distracted him, as they roamed across the arch of his spine and teased over his hips. He flexed in response, and she giggled again...  
  
..................................  
  
A/N: Stopping point for R-Ratings. For those able/wanting to read lemons, you can view it on aff.net and A Single Spark.  
  
...................................  
  
Miroku slowly returned to reality, a low groan scraping up from deep within as the wet heat of her mouth left him. His eyes opened, and a warm smile of contentment curved his mouth. Koharu's head rested on his belly, her brown eyes alight with the knowledge of her gift. His fingers disengaged from their tangling hold of her silky black locks and slowly traced the delicate features of her face.  
  
"I love you." She whispered, and he smiled softly at her, his blue eyes darkening as he eyed the white flesh draped over him.  
  
"Come here." He said, his voice husky. His manhood stirred slightly with interest as she slithered over him, the tightened nipples of her breasts sliding over his skin. His hands slid over her shoulders, and down to her trim waist. Summoning strength, he lifted her so that he could take one flowered bud in his mouth. She gasped, and arched into the pleasure...  
  
................................  
  
"Where's Miroku?" Kagome asked Lady Kaede curiously. Wrapped in a borrowed pink kimono from one of the peasant women, she bent over her red hakama, studiously trying to pierce the cloth with the sharp needle, and not her fingers.  
  
"Ow!"  
  
'Oops.'  
  
"Kagome." Kaede's voice was dry, as the two village girls who had volunteered to help speed the "resizing" process along giggled behind their hands, brown eyes sparkling and cheeks blushing.  
  
'Some things never change.' Kagome bit her lip, eyeing the two girls. Except for some obviously physical differences, the two could be her friends in the modern age. They could be just as light-hearted and giggly as Eri, Yuka or Ayumi.  
  
"Kagome. Try to concentrate on mending the clothing, so that I do not have to concentrate on mending ye." Lady Kaede scolded gently. Kagome blushed slightly, and dropped her eyes back down to her detested task.  
  
"I do wonder, though, where Koharu has gone." Lady Kaede said thoughtfully, as her own needle flashed back and forth in the flickering yellow-orange glow of tapered oil set alight for their task. "She has a deft hand at stitching wounds. I am certain she would prove as useful in stitching clothing."  
  
Kagome let out another muffled noise of frustration as the needle pricked her fingertip again. The girls giggled, and she wanted to glare with the utter frustration of it all, but really, she should be more grateful. The girls didn't have to sit here helping her, and Lady Kaede definitely didn't have to give her her extra clothing. Really, she was getting to be as grouchy as InuYasha!  
  
'Where IS InuYasha for that matter? And Sango?'  
  
Shippo had told her that the group had seperated quite a few days ago. Miroku, Shippo and Kirara had returned to the village to follow a rumor that she was there, and InuYasha and Sango had gone to the Western Lands to rescue her. What was taking them so long to return? Surely InuYasha could sense that she was no longer there!  
  
Miroku had said to give them a few days more, just to make certain that they weren't coming as they---on Kirara---were leaving to go hunt for them, and missed them in the process. Kirara had been acting restlessly, though, and she kept staring off toward the west.  
  
'She must be really missing Sango.' Kagome thought sadly, her fingers smoothing the red fabric between her fingers.  
  
Now, Miroku had been as distracted as Kirara had been restless. She knew that he had been spending quite a bit of time with Koharu, and that worried her too. As much as she liked the courageous girl and felt sorry for her, she still couldn't help wondering how Sango would feel when she knew of Koharu's return in Miroku's life.  
  
There were certainly going to be some surprises when Sango and InuYasha returned to the village. And, if Kagome was honest with herself, there was even a bit of reluctance on her own part to see InuYasha again.  
  
A slow flush crept over her cheeks, and she bent her head, as if inspecting her stitches closer. What would InuYasha think when he saw her again? He would certainly be able to tell that she wasn't a...  
  
She made a mew of half-sadness, half-frustration as the needle pricked her thumb this time. She stuck the offending digit in her mouth, and batted the tears back, telling herself that it was only the pain from her pricked finger, and not the pain of knowing that InuYasha might be disappointed in her.  
  
"Lady Kagome?" One of the peasant girls stood up and knelt down beside her, her hands reaching for the red hakama. "I am finished with the kimono. Perhaps...?" She smiled softly. Kagome blinked back the wetness from her eyes, and nodded, unable to speak.  
  
The girl took the needle and cloth, and went back to seat herself by the other peasant girl. Kagome found her voice, and said, "Um, thank you."  
  
The girl gave her a slight bow of her head in acknowledge, her hands already busy pulling Kagome's haphazard stitches out of the cloth.  
  
'I can't seem to do anything right nowadays.' Kagome felt like sniffling. She looked up, feeling the old miko's attention on her, and blushed.  
  
Kaede gave her an unreadable gaze, and then stood up herself. She folded the white kimono---a second shirt for Kagome that she had insisted she take---in her hands and gave it to the second peasant girl. "Hiroko, I believe ye and ye sister can handle the rest of it. I thank thee for ye help."  
  
"Certainly, Lady Kaede." The young girl blushed at the implied compliment. It was an honor to help the old priestess, and it was only fair, as Kaede had helped their youngest sister heal from that bad sickness last winter. Both girls bowed as Kaede laid a calloused hand on Kagome's shoulder and nodded to the darkening sunset outside.  
  
"Kagome? I think I need ye to help me bring in some water."  
  
Kagome bit her lip, flushing again. She knew that Kaede wanted to talk, and the water was just an excuse. She dutifully followed the old miko, stopping only to retrieve the two buckets that stood empty by the door.  
  
Kaede placed her hands behind her bent back, and walked slightly ahead of her as they wandered over to the fresh spring the old miko preferred to draw water from. The path was deserted at this time of day--- most of the villagers were inside their huts, making dinner or tending children. They didn't speak until they reached the spring. Kagome knelt down beside the small, bubbling pool, and dipped the first bucket in, feeling the water swirl over the lip and increasing the weight of the vessel as it filled.  
  
Kaede gave a long sigh, her time-worn face set in sharp profile as the last orange rays of sunset touched it. Turning from the beautiful display of pink-tinged clouds and purpling sky, the priestess gingerly settled herself on the grass beside Kagome.  
  
Kagome pulled the full bucket from the water, and sat back on her knees. She kept her eyes on the spring, watching the lazy swirls of the water as bubbles rang up from the slight fissure beneath that gave the small, quiet pool its existence.  
  
"Ye are worried, child." Kaede's voice wrapped around her, soothing her.  
  
"Yes." She said simply, fixated on the pool.  
  
"About InuYasha?"  
  
Kagome shot Kaede a slight frown, and then looked down at her hands, clasped in her lap.  
  
"What will he do, Kaede? When he returns and knows I..."  
  
"That I do not know, child." The old priestess raised her face, the glimpse of a glowing firefly catching the corner of her eye.  
  
Kagome did not find any comfort in the blunt words, honest though they were.  
  
Kaede sighed. "For all that we feel that we know InuYasha's true mind, he can still be an enigma."  
  
Kagome bit her lip, and there was silence between them for a long, long time. They both watched as the sun set in its last glory of light and as the twilight deepened from light purple to darker blue, to match the monkish robes Miroku wore. The moon, hanging just past full in the sky, lightened to silver as the night's darkness grew.  
  
"I think ye worry about the wrong things, child. What will be, will be." The old miko's voice came out of the darkness. Kagome jumped slightly in surprise, her mind had been on other things.  
  
"What do you mean?" She turned her head. Kaede's form looked dark, the white of her kimono and the long, grey hair silvered in the soft moonlight. Fireflies danced around them, their glows winking in and out of existence. The night was slowly coming to life around them, but Kagome was too distracted to notice.  
  
"Ye could be pregnant." The priestess was blunt.  
  
Kagome blinked in shock. A creeping sense of dread filled her mind, and one of her small hands came to lie across her flat stomach, her fingers tightening in the faded pink fabric of the borrowed kimono.  
  
"W...What?" Her voice shook.  
  
"I must speak plainly, so forgive me, child." Kaede stirred slightly. "Ye told me that ye lay with the Lord many times that night."  
  
Kagome bowed her head, her hand dropping from her stomach to tangle in the thick grass beside her. She clutched at it, suddenly afraid.  
  
'I never even thought about it! We didn't use protection, and...'  
  
Memories flashed through...memories that had not clouded from the old miko's sacred intervention, but that no longer hurt her to think about. Kaede had succeeded in taking the grieving sting out of those memories--- especially from that last time that SesshouMaru had used her so harshly. Regret had replaced the pain, more regret for InuYasha's coming pain than her own, and a bit of wonder that she herself had not been so unwilling, when all was said and done.  
  
There was also a bit of lost sadness, as if she had known something precious for a few moments, that she had touched something quite lovely, and that it had then been snatched back away from her.  
  
It was all too new and confusing, and she didn't know if it could be something that any girl might feel after her first time. It was not something she could talk about with Kaede, no matter how wonderful and understanding the old miko could be. She just wouldn't understand.  
  
But her little worries were all swept aside by the sudden fear Kaede had just handed her.  
  
"Kaede...c-could you tell? W-Would you know?" Kagome asked, a hitch in her soft voice. There was nothing like home-pregnancy tests here in the feudal age, that she knew of. But Kaede was a healer, and a miko. Perhaps...  
  
A worn palm came to rest on her cheek, bringing her face up, although neither woman could see the other in the purpling darkness. "Aye, child. Normally."  
  
Kagome froze on the third word. "N-Normally?"  
  
"I have the training, and normally I could use my small powers to detect the growth of life in a woman's womb. But there are...complications." Kaede's hand curved over her cheek, offering the touch of comfort in a suddenly frightening world.  
  
"What do you mean? Please, Kaede, tell me!" Kagome's hand came up to touch the gnarled fingers of the old priestess, and her voice was hoarse with desperation.  
  
"I am a healer, child. I could not harm life."  
  
"What does that have to do..."  
  
"The sacred energy that we use, as mikos, is sometimes used to purify youkai." Kaede's voice was soft and heavy, as if she feared what she spoke to Kagome.  
  
"Purify..."  
  
"If ye had life in ye, child, it would be, at least in part, of youkai blood." Kaede's gnarled hand moved to hold Kagome's shaking fingers. Kagome felt cold and scared, and very much alone, even though the old miko was right next to her. "To use the sacred powers could harm the life of the child in ye."  
  
'What is she saying?'  
  
"There is, child, a chance, that ye might NOT be carrying." Kaede's fingers tightened in hers in reassurance, before sighing. "But ye cannot risk harming that little life---even if it is only a possibility. I cannot use my own powers to check, child, and ye must not use ye own until ye are certain that ye do not carry life."  
  
Kagome shivered, frightened tears gathering in her eyes. A sense of overwhelming helplessness filled her as the old priestess's words sunk in. A child...if she was pregnant with a child, it would at least be half of SesshouMaru's, and would carry youkai blood. If what Kaede said was true, than her own purification powers, as well as Kaede's, could potentially harm the baby. Kaede would not risk any harm to even the faint possibility of a life, and Kagome could understand why.  
  
All life was precious...even life that was not yet certain...  
  
She let out a choked sob, and Kaede's arms wrapped around her. Kagome's forehead came to rest in the broad shoulder, and she breathed deeply, trying to stave off the fears that threatened to tear her apart. Kaede held her like a baby, her worn hands patting over her back, and Kagome felt the tears burning in her eyes as she thought about how the old miko held her. Kaede spoke soft words into her ear, whispered words of a mother's comfort, and Kagome let her control go, her tears dampening the white fabric beneath her as her body shook with the sudden realization of what all this might mean to her...to InuYasha...to HIM, the Taiyoukai...  
  
It was some time before she could calm herself, and then the old miko still held her, speaking comfort and reassurance, empty promises that hurt Kagome to hear. She finally, only relaxed as exhaustion and inevitability filled her.  
  
But a sudden, intense fear had her breaking away from the old woman's embrace, and she let out a shuddering breath as she asked hoarsely, "Kaede...what about...when you took the pain from me? Will it...could it..."  
  
"I do not know, child." The priestess was bluntly honest, and Kagome let out a hoarse sound as the new worry stabbed through her. Her stomach knotted with fear, and she wondered suddenly if the possible life inside of her could be ended before she even knew if there WAS any life...  
  
Kaede hastened to reassure her. "I do not think it would. What I did was only to take the emotion from you, and I did nothing to you, physically, to achieve that end. But I should caution ye, that I am not certain. I have never known of a miko carrying a youkai child, and I do know what further intervention might prove harmful. If I use my power to check for life, then I would be directly affecting the babe. And ye, child...if ye were to use your powers, there would be far more risk of harm being done. Thy body holds the babe, and if ye were to use even a bit of ye power, ye might directly harm the babe."  
  
Kagome drew in a shuddering breath, her mind whirling with the dreaded possibilities. She remembered, suddenly, how the sacred energy had burned through her on the day that SesshouMaru had captured her. She recalled how her anger and fear for InuYasha's safety, her helpless frustration over their situation, and how the energy had burned in her, yearning to be unleashed. It had echoed throughout her entire being---her soul almost using her body as a gateway to call the sacred energy that had cleared the woods of fighting youkai. She recalled how she had fainted after that sudden releasing of power, and how she had come to, weary and exhausted and barely able to move.  
  
And she remembered, shivering, how that "energy wave", as Miroku called it, had killed the youkai for nearly a quarter of a mile around them. If the power, raw and unfocused in her release, had done THAT, what could it do to...  
  
She let out a soft cry, her hands instinctively coming to cradle the flat expanse of her stomach. "Kaede!"  
  
The old miko laid a gentle hand on both of hers, squeezing gently. "Ye worry before time, child. I only meant to caution ye. There are some strong doubts that ye could even BE pregnant. The Lord has lived a long time, and would not be incautious. It is well known to me how he despises humans, and how he feels his family's honor was tainted when his father took InuYasha's mother to wife, and she bore him a child. Youkai, especially strong youkai, do not spread their seed freely."  
  
Kagome let out a gasp when she heard InuYasha's name. 'InuYasha! How would he react if...'  
  
Kaede cut into her thoughts. "We will not know until ye cycle starts. Do ye remember when last ye had it?"  
  
Distracted, Kagome bit her lip. Thinking hard, she almost whimpered her frustration at her own carelessness. She could not really remember the last day that she had had her period, and it made her blush that Kaede could even mention it. But she had to be practical about this...if she WAS pregnant, than they would certainly be talking about a lot more familiar subjects than just her body's natural cycles! And she was from the modern age, when girls talked about it all the time...well, they were supposed to, anyway. Over the last three years, she hadn't really spent much time with her friends all that much, what with popping in and out only for tests and finals at school. They all had grown further and further apart over the years, no matter how much her three closest girl friends had rejoiced when she DID show up to school!  
  
'Focus, Kagome!' She told herself sternly, even as her mind darted from one subject to another in exhausted bewilderment. Kaede waited patiently, and Kagome had to finally say with some reluctance, "I can't remember. It was a few weeks before..."  
  
"Before that night." Kaede finished, letting out a long sigh. "Very well, then, it cannot be helped. We must only bide our time, and wait and see." She squeezed Kagome's hands once more, and then rose slowly to her feet.  
  
Kagome let out a mew of frustration at her own carelessness, and Kaede patted her shoulder in passing as the old miko bent by the spring to fill the second bucket. Kagome blinked, her attention suddenly focusing more on the mundane. The world had darkened completely to night around them, and even the fireflies had forsaken them. She shivered, looking at the shadows that surrounded the small spring. Some of the worst battles they had fought had been at night, when youkai were more active, or at least seemed to be. She felt suddenly weak and defenseless---a sensation she hadn't really felt for some time, not since she had learned to fill her arrows with sacred energy, and could kill a demon with one shot.  
  
She couldn't even risk that now.  
  
"Come, child."  
  
Kaede had calmly picked up both buckets, the contents swaying slightly at her movement, while Kagome sat lost in her own thoughts. Kagome started, suddenly feeling guilty. Here she was, mulling after things that might not even happen, and poor, old Kaede was hauling those heavy buckets of water around!  
  
Jumping up, Kagome took the wooden buckets from the protesting miko. "Let me, Kaede. I know how tired you get after a long day." Kaede let out a dry grumble, but handed them over without further protest.  
  
"Ye are a strong child, Kagome." The old miko said. "Do not fret ye self with things that might not happen."  
  
"Yes, Lady." Kagome meant only to mouth the words, but she somehow found comfort in them. Kaede was right. She couldn't keep dragging herself around in trepidation and despair. There was plenty of work to be done...and plenty of other things to worry about! Her mom had once said that she shouldn't worry before the chicks were hatched, and Kagome actually wanted to giggle at that sudden memory---though why she should suddenly want to laugh when she really felt like crying even mystified her.  
  
But Mom was right.  
  
Only time would tell. 


	32. Chapter ThirtyOne: Choice

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha...sigh...lucky Rumiko...  
  
A/N: Again, some of the words from the anime (American version) have been twisted into this chapter.  
  
WARNING: DARK IMAGERY!  
  
Chapter Thirty-One (Choice)  
  
The Lord stood, his arrogant face still and devoid of emotion as his golden eyes flashed over the scene of destruction around him. His acute senses told him that blood, youkai and human, covered the demolished forest floor. Huge swaths of ground had been churned up in battle, trees uprooted and knocked aside by hurling bodies. The enormous bulk of a dead youkai was sprawled some feet away on one side, other various pieces of him strewn across the wide expanse of devastated woodland.  
  
One enormous hand, three-clawed and bloody in the light provided by his own glowing aura, was curled on its side atop a pile of ningen bones. The skulls grinned maniacally at him, but his gaze traveled over them with indifference. Another claw, clutching a smaller body, was lying in churned mud on the other side, the arm lengthening until it was abruptly cut off by the once-attached shoulder. A pale face, ghostly white in his aura of light, was bent backwards between two clenching claws, the black top-knot and blue ribbon showing evidence of ningen origin, while the brown eyes stared sightlessly at him.  
  
As SesshouMaru's eyes fell on the boy's upturned face, the blade at his side pulsed once, sending an urgent call through him.  
  
'You desire a healing, Tenseiga?'  
  
By narrowing and focusing his golden gaze, he could make out the faint outline of gremlins that covered the boy, their claws digging and tugging at the trapped body...  
  
Tenseiga pulsed once more, and his attention was diverted to the far side of the field. There was a faint pulse from the broken weapon that lay seperated into two pieces. With a slight widening of golden eyes his only physical reaction to surprise, the Taiyoukai mouthed the name of the blade twined to his.  
  
"Tetsusaiga."  
  
Something snarled.  
  
He was up and away, easily avoiding the powerful swing of outstretched claws. With a faint growl over his own inattention, SesshouMaru regarded the youkai who had dared to attack him.  
  
His breath caught, and he regarded the transformed youkai with a lifted silver brow.  
  
"InuYasha."  
  
It was, and was not, his despised half-brother. The hanyou, the scent of human-tainted youkai blood, was gone, and in its place...  
  
Was the inu.  
  
The demon barred its fangs at him, the red eyes like glowing coals of hate. His brother's body had not transformed like a true youkai's would have, but hanyou-demon was strengthened---the wide breadth of his shoulders muscled, the white ears that gave away his father's heritage were sharpened to higher points and seemed more mobile. The inu demon's fangs were lengthened into deadly points, and the white claws that he shared with the Taiyoukai were extended into razored daggers. The aura that surrounded his hanyou brother was seething with the red rage of bloodlust.  
  
"You have changed." He said dispassionately, even as his own golden eyes bled faintly pink in answer to the inu demon's snarling defiance.  
  
"Inu." The blood demon did not know his full-blooded brother, but he recognized the Taiyoukai on some level. What awareness the Lord glimpsed was buried under the blood-lust that consumed the transformed hanyou.  
  
SesshouMaru's lips curled with disgust. "You have lost control, brother, over your inu youkai blood."  
  
Lightening flashed, highlighting the madness in InuYasha's eyes.  
  
With a roar, the inu demon was jumping up at him, his hate and rage finding focus as his sharpened claws reached for the Lord.  
  
The inu in his own blood snarled in reaction, even as SesshouMaru easily side-stepped the demon's flashing claws. His own hand came up, the claws lengthening, and he casually back-handed his brother across the side. Blood splashed from the wound, mingling with the blood that covered the inu demon already, darkening the weakening fire rat robes that should have protected him.  
  
"You are not more than a murderous youkai." SesshouMaru said in contempt as the demon whirled to face him in mid-air, his own wounds forgotten in the rage of his inu blood.  
  
"DIE!" The demon roared, leaping at him. SesshouMaru easily evaded the first claws---his brother was so predictably direct in his attacks--- but then roared his anger as the demon's other hand came up to shred across his own back, leaving deep wounds. The Lord's roar turned into a snarl of outrage as his eyes reddened and his own youkai nature seethed through him, breaking through his diminished control.  
  
Gift of the girl, Kagome, his once-tight control over his raging inu blood had been weakened.  
  
And now it was shattered by the girl's hanyou lover.  
  
Both brothers swept back, away from each other, eyes bled with fury as they snarled their fury. SesshouMaru bared his fangs, elongated with his bloodlust, and his claws glinted in the faint glow of his light that was slowly dying as his inu blood sucked the aura back into him, to focus the rage solely on ripping this paltry inu to shreds.  
  
'Blood...'  
  
Thunder crashed, and the winds swept in as the protective glow of his light dissipated, swirling through rain-soaked white locks as the two inu brothers snarled their wrath at each other. Blood seeped from wounds both had dealt the other, and their raging blood, gift of their father, surged through them, clouding their minds with bloodlust and hate.  
  
SesshouMaru crouched, ready to spring at the pathetic youkai who dared to cross his lands. His mind was gone in rage, the inu taking control, and he did not recognize anything but the threat that faced him. ::Outsider!::  
  
Blood...  
  
Fingers cracked with meaningful menace, and the volume of the growling inu increased, the matching blood-red eyes glowing certain extinction at each other.  
  
Reduced to the inu youkai, the Taiyoukai snarled in that primitive speech. ::Trespass! Outsider! Submit or die!::  
  
The inu demon growled in return, the defiant fury deepening his voice. ::No! Challenge! I, alpha! You die!::  
  
::ALPHA, I!:: The Taiyoukai roared, the threat to his position as head of the pack stirring his inu instincts to raging life. He was Lord of the lands he claimed as his own, he would defend his domain to the death!  
  
::MINE!::  
  
Jagged teeth gleaming in a raging snarl, the Taiyoukai leapt for the attack, even as the other inu hurtled towards him, claws outstretched with intended death on their razor edges.  
  
Something spun between them.  
  
Both youkai snarled at the intrusion, jumping back as the massive weapon landed with a powerful thud of impact as it lodged in the churned earth between them. The demon-boned boomerang quivered with arrested force, and then stilled.  
  
Eyes glowing red death, the Taiyoukai snarled at the interruption, his attention caught by the woman who had thrown the weapon at them.  
  
::Female!:: The howl came from the other inu, his brother.  
  
The Taiyoukai barred his teeth in answer, the promise of a quick end for both.  
  
::PACK.:: The inu demon claimed her, jumping at the black-armored woman, his claws stretched out. The woman tried to deflect him, but she was no match for an inu youkai with his full blood released. Blood-streaked white claws grabbed her shoulders, and the inu demon swept her against him, his fury directed on the Taiyoukai as he claimed the woman as one of his.  
  
"InuYasha!" The woman cried against him, her hands coming up to push away his unmoving claws. The inu demon merely tightened his hold, growling a warning at the female of his pack. She was not his alpha mate, and she must submit to him. The red eyes glowed more fiercely as he tightened his hold on the woman, snarling his defiance at the Taiyoukai.  
  
Thunder crashed, and lightening flared, highlighting the woman's desperate face. Her dark eyes were on the Taiyoukai, and her voice called to him.  
  
"SesshouMaru! Please! He doesn't know himself!"  
  
Something stirred in the Taiyoukai's mind---a faint flicker of recognition at the name.  
  
It was HIS name...  
  
The inu in him snarled even as a powerful jerk at his side throbbed through his soul, calling forth the inherent demand of awareness.  
  
White claws swept across his rain-swept body, seeking the hilt of the fang at his side.  
  
'Tenseiga...'  
  
As his hand clasped over the braided hilt, the sword pulsed once more, calling him.  
  
Gold flashed once through the reddened eyes.  
  
'TENSEIGA!'  
  
The sword pulsed in answer, and his single hand burned on the hilt as his claws tightened. Ignoring the pain that ran through his screaming blood, he pulled the sword free, the lightly green glow brightening to white fire and then dying to silvered steel as he held the sword aloft. The fang's fire poured through him, calling forth his soul to take control of the inu.  
  
'I am...SESSHOUMARU!'  
  
His soul snarled at the raging blood, and he battled for control and supremacy as the world shrunk to the internal fight between WHO he was and WHAT he was.  
  
The inu howled as his soul surged, the sword pulsing once more in a flash of green and white light that dazzled his vision with its intensity. Pain flared through him as his inu youkai blood tried to reclaim command once more in a final attempt at primacy, endeavoring to transform his body into its true youkai form. He could feel his eyes widening, his nose extending as his jaws opened. His ears were lengthening and moving, and he could feel the inu blood surge in him, willing him to drop the sword from his claws and fall to the ground as the inu fought for dominance.  
  
His soul answered with flaring brilliance, refusing to submit. He fought the transformation, fought for calmness and control and awareness. His claws tightened on the glowing blade, and he felt his body screaming as the two natures, the demon and the soul, fought over him. Slowly, ever so slowly, for time seemed to have stopped outside of his inner battle, he could feel his ears shortening, his features snapping back into the semblance of youkai, not inu...  
  
His body tensed as the fire flared through him, the gift of his father's fang pulsing with inner strength and aid. Snarling his defiance, he roared to the rain-swept heavens above him, his eyes glowing with molten light as his soul embraced the demon, pulling it toward the heart of WHO he was, and tightening its control around the rage.  
  
"SESSHOUMARU!"  
  
His voice rang out across the storm-wracked forest, as his soul claimed his nature. Golden eyes glowing, the long silver blade of Tenseiga pulsed once, matching that cry. Green fire glowed around him, the white brilliance on the edges moving inward to highlight his braced body. Roaring his triumph, he raised both arms---one whole and tightened upon the sword, the other a shortened copy ended at the upper arm---to embrace the earth around him.  
  
The green glow, his true power, flared once, lighting the forest like the flash of lightening, and then died.  
  
The wind howled, and rain fell heavier against his soaked body, dragging the ends of his silver-white hair and adding weight to the long kimono that slithered over him like a second skin.  
  
Control swept through him, and mild golden eyes narrowed with sudden focus at the low growl of his hanyou brother. Sheathing the now-silent Tenseiga, he turned to face the demon.  
  
'InuYasha.'  
  
His brother had kept one clawed hand on the girl he guarded, the other arm, clad in the water and blood-soaked haori, was stretched protectively across his face as his red eyes glowed in hate and bloodlust. He crouched to one side, his body covering the woman.  
  
"InuYasha!" The girl cried at him, struggling for release when she saw the return of calm distance that suffused the Taiyoukai. The inu demon snarled, and let her go as his attention fixated on the Lord.  
  
::BLOOD.::  
  
The raging blood had taken over so much control that his brother could not even form the speech of ningen or youkai. He spoke only in the inu language, a primitive speech known instinctively at birth.  
  
Bloodlust heated the half-demon, and would not be denied.  
  
Roaring his challenge, the blood demon who was his brother launched himself at the Taiyoukai.  
  
SesshouMaru easily side-stepped the swipe of daggered claws, and continued to maneuver from side to side as his half-brother swung, left and right, left and right, pressing him back. The Lord allowed his brother to keep up the advance, his gaze cold and contemplative as he watched the mindless, raging inu that attacked him with maddened fury.  
  
InuYasha's soul was still buried under the rage of his blood, and SesshouMaru's eyes narrowed on him, the gold glowing with understanding.  
  
"InuYasha." Dodge.  
  
"You feel no fear." Snarl.  
  
"You know no pain." Swipe.  
  
"The demon blood coursing through your veins---" Sidestep.  
  
"---is taking over your soul." Swipe.  
  
"You don't even know who you are." Roar of rage.  
  
"And you will continue fighting---" Swipe.  
  
"---until you die."  
  
Thud.  
  
SesshouMaru pulled back his own curled fist as his brother was knocked flying across the field. The red light died out as the eyelids sunk close, and the hanyou's body crumpled into the ground, unconscious.  
  
"InuYasha!"  
  
His attention was drawn from the unmoving hanyou to the ningen girl who raced across the mud, her feet sliding across the rain-swept ground as she ran to InuYasha's side. A flicker of recognition crossed his mind, and put name to the girl who knelt over the hanyou, her white hands pulling at the hanyou's red haori, feeling for a pulse on the exposed neck.  
  
'Taijiya.'  
  
He watched as the slayer snarled in anger as she pulled at the wet ties on his brother's blood-covered haori, the rain thundering down on them turning the ties into slippery knots. Arching a single brow, the Lord made a slight gesture with his hand, and suddenly the entire battlefield was covered in his white, glowing aura. The crash of furious thunder was cut off abruptly, and the radiant shield of light kept the descending rain at bay.  
  
He could hear the sharp intake of breath from the taijiya in the sudden silence. She shot him a brown-eyed look, and then turned her back, her wet fingers struggling on the knots. He watched her with faint amusement as, with a growl of impatience, she jerked a thin dirk from one black-clad ankle. The dagger gleamed silver in the brilliant white light, and she used it to cut the ties off of his brother's fire rat robes.  
  
Blood soaked through the white kimono beneath, and the Lord watched dispassionately as the slayer shivered in reaction to the numerous wounds that covered the hanyou's torso and chest.  
  
"InuYasha..." The word was soft, and almost despairing.  
  
Her head turned sharply as the Lord's foot crunched intentionally on upturned rocks littering the ravaged ground. She watched him with a fierce expression, one hand going to white-knuckle the katana at her side in automatic warning.  
  
A smile hinted at the cold expression as the Taiyoukai walked slowly, deliberately, to stand beside them.  
  
"Why?" She grit out, her weak ningen teeth barred at him in a slightly-amusing attempt at a youkai growl.  
  
He ignored her question.  
  
"He has finally been brought down. If you wish him to stop, use the Tetsusaiga to reverse the transformation. Otherwise, he will continue to fight when he awakens."  
  
He turned his back, but stiffened as he heard her abrupt movement, standing up behind him.  
  
"Tetsusaiga is broken."  
He did not turn to look at her.  
  
"There is a Jewel shard. By the boy."  
  
There was a gasp behind him.  
  
"Kohaku!"  
  
He could smell the tears that stung her eyes, could hear the rustle of her lashes as she blinked them back. Her words were hoarse, as if her heart was breaking inside. "I...I need the Jewel shard for my brother. He cannot live without it! Naraku---"  
  
A faint growl emanated from him at that name, but he cut it off.  
  
Her eyes bore holes in his back.  
  
"The boy is dead." He said coldly.  
  
Tenseiga pulsed at his hip, and he could feel the girl's attention on it.  
  
"The Sword of Healing." Her gasping whisper filled the silence, hope gnawing at its edges.  
  
Closing his golden eyes, SesshouMaru directed his thoughts at the blade. 'Tenseiga. Do you wish me to save this boy?'  
  
The sword pulsed once more.  
  
White claws touched the hilt, and with a sharp jerk, he pulled the sword free. His face was arrogantly stoic as he stalked over to the purple- tinged claws that trapped the dead body of the taijiya's brother. He knew that the girl followed him, her steps light against the churned mud and leaf-litter that covered the forest floor. He could hear the wild staccato of her heartbeat, could sense the hopeful anticipation.  
  
Ningen emotions were so easily read.  
  
He stilled, a few feet away from the boy's upturned face. He was young, and there was pain etched in the white flesh. The boy had not died easily, and there was more than physical distress that deepened the lines around the wide, blank brown eyes.  
  
By narrowing his gaze, he could see the gremlins that hovered over the boy, their yellow eyes much like his servant Jaken's, their claws clutching at the body, seeking the spirit.  
  
Raising the sword, he swept it in a downstroke...  
  
Only to have it stop in mid-swing, inches above the ghostly-pale face.  
  
Tenseiga pulsed, flared with a greenish mist, and then died.  
  
A silver brow raised as he regarded the silent sword.  
  
"Why isn't he breathing?" There was a hitch in the urgent whisper behind him. SesshouMaru turned his head, his golden eyes focused on the pale girl behind him. The black tangles of her bangs edged around her white cheeks in dampened curls, and her eyes were dark holes of desperation.  
  
"Tenseiga will not heal him." Was all he said, sheathing the silent blade.  
  
"But..." A trembling breath eased out of the taijiya, and she closed her eyes tight against the threat of tears that he could smell on her. Her steeled resolve seemed to crumple, and she fell to her knees in the mud, one hand going out to touch the dead boy's pale cheek, the other digging into the bloodied soil beside her. She bent her head, and trembled.  
  
Something flashed fiery pink and fuchsia not a foot from the girl, and the Taiyoukai's eyes narrowed on it.  
  
"Taijiya."  
  
Her body jerked, and her head lifted, the tears falling unheeded down her white cheeks.  
  
"The Shikon shard is there." He nodded once, his voice distant and cold.  
  
She gasped, and her hand snaked out to grasp the glowing crystal. The Jewel was bathed in a deeply rose color, fuchsia streaks running through the lighter pink. It swirled with malevolent power, and the Lord could feel the foul touch of the dark hanyou, Naraku, on its aura.  
  
She cupped the small diamond-shaped piece of the Shikon no Tama in her dirty hands, her head bowed, her heart racing.  
  
Tenseiga pulsed once more at his hip, and he could feel the call of the broken Tetsusaiga across the trampled field. There was a faint, harsh moan from the unconscious hanyou that lay wounded between them and the broken sword.  
  
The girl stiffened.  
  
"He awakens." SesshouMaru said indifferently.  
  
"But..."  
  
"You must choose." The gold in his eyes intensified as he stared at the taijiya.  
  
'She is ningen. Would she choose to save her brother or mine?'  
  
For InuYasha would die if he were to awaken in the blood rage's clasp. He, as Taiyoukai, could not let the mindless, blood-maddened inu that had taken control of his half-brother live.  
  
"Choose..." She closed her eyes, and a harsh breath tore through her. He was amazed at her control---he could sense the raging emotions that battled inside of her. Fear and heartbreak, loss and guilt. She was torn in two, between heart-loyalty and blood-loyalty. Only a faint whisper of her emotions showed through the tight rein she kept over them.  
  
The ningen taijiya was surprising.  
  
The malevolent shard in her hands flared suddenly with a pure, pinkish-white light. Her hands curled over the Jewel, and she bent her head a moment, a tear sliding down her cheek.  
  
'She has chosen.'  
  
She stood up, her eyes dark and unreadable, and she turned away from the boy who was trapped in youkai claws. Her steps were slow, as if it was the Jewel who was leading her, and not her own awareness.  
  
A throbbing heart-beat shuddered through the limp form of his hanyou brother. White claws, darkened with blood down to the wrist, curled for a moment. SesshouMaru watched dispassionately, his eyes distant.  
  
Awareness was returning to the inu.  
  
The taijiya, her head bowed, the long black tail of her hair hanging plastered in wet strands down her armored back, paused before the awakening hanyou.  
  
A slow growl emanated from his half-brother, and the girl fell to her knees once again in the churned earth beside him.  
  
The inu demon was quick to react, his eyes flashing red as he jumped back away from her, crouching in defense. His clawed toes dug into the soaked ground, and he bared his fangs, his eyes and awareness focused only on the girl in front of him. His white hair, filthy and matted with blood and dirt, hung down his back in wet tangles, and his bloodied claws curled as a low snarl hissed out of him.  
  
::Female.::  
  
SesshouMaru watched them impassively, the unemotional mask of his face giving nothing away as he listened to the inu growls of his transformed half-brother.  
  
Muscles flexed under the blood-splattered kimono, and the inu demon snarled a command at the woman whom he considered a pack female.  
  
::Submit!::  
  
The girl could not understand what the dog demon was snarling at her, but her unconscious actions served their purpose. She bent her head, and tears burned under her closed eyes. Her head turned slightly to the side, as if she would look once back at her dead brother, but she did not turn fully.  
  
The gesture exposed her neck, her head to the side.  
  
A sign of submission.  
  
The inu demon grinned his triumph, his red eyes glowing, fangs glinting.  
  
The taijiya's hands uncurled from around the glowing Jewel shard, and she extended it toward him.  
  
The dog demon froze.  
  
The Lord watched silently as the Shikon shard flashed once, bathing the pair of them in pink and white fire. The fire flared once in life, and then expired.  
  
The crouching hanyou tensed, his ears flattening against his skull. Confused amber eyes blinked rapidly, as if seeking awareness.  
  
"Sango?"  
  
The Taiyoukai turned away, calling the extension of his glowing white light closer to him. The light, as luminous as lightening, dissolved from around the devastated forest, intensifying as it folded in around him once more. Raising his golden eyes up to the dying storms, SesshouMaru felt the aura tightening so that only he now rested in the protective white globe. With a flicker of thought, he was up and away from them.  
  
....................................................................  
  
A/N: Hee-hee! Bet you weren't expecting THOSE twists! (Does the twisty- dance...ow! banged my knee on the desk!) Sorry about the long chapter, but I wanted to get it out. I was going to break it up into three or four, but I might have gotten killed (dodges Wicca and various murderous vampire bunnies and walking Barney corpse...ack! a boyfriend for Kikyo?). A couple of notes: Athena, again you have inspired! Amy, the pics alone have gotten my hentai juice going again...more :P in the wind! Fyyrrose...LOL...nice to meet the 3 Amigos, and I wonder if you were a subject study of Freud's in a past life? Anyway, I am glad to make the acquaintance of Eris, Raven, and Keaira. And revenge is a "witch"...I might have to indulge in that Sango chappie! CrystalJade, aff.net is adultfanfiction.net, and the NC17 version is posted there under "YoukaiFate", as well as on A Single Spark under "Fate". Alaina: I'll take the money for GB surgery after all those cookies. Jazngurl: Thank you for your offer of translation assistance, and wait for my future attack! I need some Japanese name advising, for minor OC and (perhaps) future babies...but y'all might be surprised at who might get pregnant...Kagome wasn't the only one exercising her lateral libido... O.O  
  
Next chappie coming out, and Inu should be meeting up with Kag's soon! = D  
  
Thanks for all the continued support and reviews!!! 


	33. Chapter ThirtyTwo: Gift

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
WARNING: LIMEY LEMON IN THIS CHAPTER! NO ONE UNDER 17 PLEASE!  
  
Chapter Thirty-Two (Gift)  
  
"Do you really have to go?" The heated whisper was warm against his neck, and her arms were loosely wrapped around his waist as she snuggled against him.  
  
"Um...yes..." Miroku was distracted by her very naked body being plastered against his. He had just put on his first robe---after dusting the various grass stems from the indigo cloth---and had been reaching for the outer, when she had tugged on his arm, making him stand so that she could snuggle into his arms.  
  
"I miss you already." Koharu's warm breath was tickling his ear, and he smiled, and then shuddered, as a small tongue peeked out to lick on the lobe and nibble suggestively.  
  
"Emmm." One strong hand came up to slip through the silky tangles of her black hair, while the other turned her closer to him so that he could give her a good, proper kiss on those busy little lips.  
  
She was like melting butter in his hands, and he could feel the sudden flare of heat that spun through them both. He couldn't get enough of her...  
  
Groaning, he allowed her to push his blue robes back off of his sturdy frame, and his desire was more than evident. She giggled---ah, that giggle---and pushed him backwards, half-playfully, half-determined.  
  
Ever willing, he allowed her to take the lead.  
  
They made quick love, her gasps matching his groans as she took him inside of her. His fingers found the special, particular spots over her body that made her squirm and cry in reaction, and she used her body to wring the pleasure from him in a blinding burst of brilliance that left him gasping and sweaty in a heap beneath her.  
  
She slumped against him, and his hands came up to hug her lightly, the bare one, free of blue cloth and prayer-beads, rubbing soft circles along her spine.  
  
"Ooohhh...I love that..." She whispered against his chest, and a slight smile curved his mouth as his deep blue eyes took in her flushed face with its tousled black locks.  
  
"I can agree." He leaned his head up to kiss her cheek lightly before lying back down with a groan.  
  
"Woman! You are going to wear me out!" He scolded lightly when she giggled.  
  
"Good." She poked a finger in his chest. "If you're too worn out, you won't leave me for another woman."  
  
A black brow rose, and Miroku gave her a mock-innocent look. "You don't trust me?"  
  
"Who would?" Koharu snorted, and rolled off of him. "Oooh..." She groaned, getting to her feet with some shaking movements and a couple of good winces added in for emphasis.  
  
Miroku turned on his side, propping his head on one bent arm, and watched her with amusement as she stretched lazily and searched through their piled clothing for her own.  
  
'Sometimes watching a woman dress is just as sexy as watching her undress...'  
  
He got a good look at that cute, saucy little bottom as she bent away from him, pulling her hakama up. His manhood stirred a bit with interest, and he shook his head, combing the sweat-dampened black tendrils from off of his forehead. With a mock-groan of his own, he rolled to his feet, and pulled his dark blue robes up from their impromptu bed.  
  
With an amused shrug, he shook the grass stems once more out of the thick fabric. He was about to pull the cloth over his head, when Koharu's low comment stopped him.  
  
"You are so sexy."  
  
Her brown eyes were dark with admiration, her lips curved in a soft smile, as her gaze traveled over his lean, muscular frame. With a wicked grin, Miroku swirled the dark blue robes up and over him, hiding his body from her wanton view.  
  
She pouted prettily, and he winked, grabbing up his purple over-robe.  
  
Koharu finished putting her own clothing in order, and her hands brushed through her tangled hair with a sigh. Finished tying his own robes in place, Miroku came to help her tie her long silky hair back with the provided white ribbon. She sighed as his fingers took over, pulling the midnight hair into a loose tail behind her.  
  
Bending, he placed a light kiss on her neck, and patted her bottom with familiar delight.  
  
She giggled, and turned to kiss him fully.  
  
"You're never going to allow me to leave, are you?" He asked, a pleased gleam in his blue eyes.  
  
"If I can help it." She smiled, eyes bright. Her arms wrapped around his waist once more, and hugged him slightly, which he started to return, before her next comment had him stop in stunned surprise.  
  
"Not that I trust you."  
  
'What?'  
  
"Excuse me?" He blinked at her, even as she snuggled closer to him, her head buried just beneath his chin. Her hair smelled of grass and earth and herbs and sex.  
  
"You could never be satisfied with just one woman, Miroku." Koharu said, her arms tightening when he tried to move away.  
  
Slightly hurt, he used his bead-wrapped hand to pull her chin up so that he could look into her eyes. Her love for him was shining in there, but there was a bit of amused irony as well.  
  
"What are you saying?" He demanded.  
  
"I love you, Miroku." Koharu whispered, turning her cheek so that she could kiss the tips of his fingers. "I have always loved you."  
  
"But---"  
  
"Shhh...just listen..." She shook her head at him, making her black hair rustle. One of her hands slipped free from his waist and she caressed his own cheek, her fingertips lightly touching across the deep frown.  
  
"I love you...but I know you. You love ALL women...you could never love just one."  
  
Miroku stiffened, a protest muffled behind her fingers on his lips.  
  
"Houshi-sama...I do not care. I love you, and that is enough." Her fingers traveled over his puzzled face, caressing the long arch of his brows, flicking over the strong bones of his cheeks.  
  
"Koharu..." He said, at a loss for words.  
  
She just gave him an enigmatic cat-eyed glance. "I enjoy it, and I know you do, too."  
  
"Koharu...I..."  
  
She kissed him, cutting off his train of thought.  
  
And then dropped a tree-trunk on his toe with her next words.  
  
"I just hope I am carrying your child now."  
  
'WHAT?'  
  
"Koharu!" He gasped, his blue eyes widening in shock. She tried to kiss him again, but his hands firmed on her upper arms and he pushed her away slightly to stare at her.  
  
Koharu just smiled, somewhat hopefully. His eyes traveled over her small body to rest on the red bow that rested across her flat waist.  
  
"I want to give you a child." Koharu whispered, her hands coming up to rest on his where they gripped her arms. "I have always wanted to give you a child."  
  
"Koharu---" He could only repeat her name, at a loss for what to say.  
  
She giggled. "Why so shocked, houshi-sama? For untold years, you have been asking every pretty woman you come across to bear you a son."  
  
He blinked, and a slow smile curved across his mouth. Shaking his head, he pulled the girl into his arms, letting his body tell her what he could not.  
  
"Mmm..." She lifted her head from his heated kiss, and snuggled back into the crook of his shoulder. Her eyes danced, and her fingers played with the purple knot that tied his over-robes in place. "I certainly enjoy the getting of it, and just imagine how beautiful your son will be."  
  
"My son..." Miroku's eyes darkened, and he hugged her tighter.  
  
"There is so much pain in your life, Miroku." Koharu turned to gaze up at him, serious once more. "Let me...allow me...to at least give you...THIS." Her small hands grasped his, and pulled them to lie against her flat belly. "It is what I have always wanted."  
  
His hands smoothed over the red fabric of her hakama with growing wonder, and he shook his head at her. "Koharu...I..."  
  
"Shhh..." She kissed him again, distracting him with her hot mouth. The girl was good at that.  
  
She was also good at making him stop in shock.  
  
"Besides, I already have our daughter's name picked out."  
  
'Daughter?'  
  
"D..."  
  
She giggled (oh, that sexy giggle!), and lightly pushed against him, laughter warming her husky voice. "We could always have twins."  
  
'Twins?'  
  
She stepped away from him, still giggling, and picked up his staff from where it leaned against a neighborly tree. The rings chimed slightly as she offered it to him. When he still stood there, blinking in shock, she pulled one hand up to wrap it firmly around the wooden shaft. She left a trailing kiss across his cheek, and whispered hot in his ear.  
  
"At least we can have fun trying..."  
  
Perking up, the curve of his smile was back, and his blue eyes darkened with anticipation. Her fingers entwined with his, and he allowed her to tug him after her, dreamily thinking of new ways in which he might try Koharu's version of "fun".  
  
With a start, he realized that she was holding his bead-wrapped hand, and his dreamy smile turned thoughtful as she led him back to the village and Kaede's.  
  
Did she truly know what gift she was offering him?  
  
....................................  
  
Kagome paced back and forth in front of the hut. Shippo watched her with wide green eyes, though he didn't venture to say anything; she was too distracted.  
  
Kagome was rarely in such an impatient mood.  
  
"Where is he? What is taking him so long?" Kagome fumed. The red hakama and white kimono of a miko looked very pretty on her, and Shippo admired his pretty Kagome with fierce pride.  
  
She was such a beautiful woman...plenty of youkai and ningen had said so, and just look at how many of them were always chasing after her to be their mate! First InuYasha---though Shippo had no patience himself with InuYasha's dilemma over her and Kikyo, in his little mind there was definitely no comparison between his adopted okaa-san and that walking mud- pie---and then there was, of course, Koga. Even SesshouMaru...that stiff youkai had to have been taken with Kagome to have stolen her...though nobody brought THAT obvious conclusion up, and Shippo wasn't too dumb to actually SAY anything about it.  
  
He DEFINITELY didn't want a whole set of lumps and bumps all over his poor little head from InuYasha's reaction to THAT idea.  
  
He sucked on the honey-treat Lady Kaede had given him, and watched his Kagome with adoring eyes.  
  
"Miroku!" Kagome quit pacing, and bound over to the blue-robed monk, stopping suddenly when she saw whose hand he was holding.  
  
'Why is Miroku holding Koharu's hand?' Shippo wondered, his treat forgotten as his eyes boggled.  
  
'Uh-oh!'  
  
It was one thing for them to be playing hide-and-seek in the forest--- well, that was what Miroku had told him they were doing---but quite another for the two of them to be HOLDING HANDS!  
  
One of Kagome's hands came up to rest on her heart, and her wide brown eyes passed from Miroku to Koharu, who was slightly blushing under the girl's astonishment.  
  
The rings on Miroku's staff jangled as he shifted his weight on nervous feet. Shippo could smell the nervousness on the houshi, even though the hentai tried to give Kagome a chagrined smile, and dropped Koharu's hand to scratch the back of his neck.  
  
"Eh...Kagome...were you waiting for me?"  
  
"Waiting---" Kagome's hands dropped to her sides to curl into fists, and she looked ready to blow.  
  
Shippo shook his little head, his fluffy tail twitching. 'Not smart, Miroku!'  
  
Kirara was suddenly there, interrupting them with an impatient mew of demand.  
  
They all jumped, and both Miroku and Kagome looked guilty as they stared at the red-eyed neko.  
  
Kirara huffed at them, and transformed into her larger form with a swirl of dust and red-orange flames. She bared her fangs at the houshi, and jerked her head to her back, twin tails flicking with impatience.  
  
"Uh...Kagome...Kirara calls..." Miroku edged past the startled girl, and toward the impatient youkai.  
  
Kagome twitched, before turning and marching after him. Koharu had discretely disappeared, and she wanted some answers...and NOW!  
  
"Don't think you're getting out of this, Miroku!" She said, making a good imitation of a stomp in soft, woven sandals. "I'm going with you, and you have A LOT of explaining to do!"  
  
Shippo felt a slight breeze behind him, and he turned to look over his fox-furred shoulder, green eyes smiling at the old miko who had parted the bamboo curtain that covered the entrance to her hut.  
  
"Kagome." Lady Kaede fully emerged, and Kagome stopped, blinking.  
  
"Yes, Lady?" She asked, her lightening-quick smile coming back and warming her eyes. Shippo was always surprised at just how suddenly Kagome could go from angry and mad to smiling and happy.  
  
"You are not to go with Kirara and Miroku." Lady Kaede folded her hands behind her back, her careworn features impassive.  
  
"But..." Kagome blinked.  
  
Miroku heaved a long sigh of gratitude, though Kirara rumbled at him, her glowing red eyes narrowing. The neko youkai allowed him to mount, however, and she turned around as Miroku's hand dug into the creamy fur of her neck.  
  
"It is too dangerous, child." Lady Kaede said, a strange look passing between the two mikos. Shippo almost fell over in surprise when Kagome bowed her head in acquiescence.  
  
'What was THAT all about?'  
  
"I will return soon." Miroku reassured Kagome, though he was in no hurry to do so. Shippo could smell the weak lie on the guilty houshi, and rolled his eyes at the obvious falsehood.  
  
Kagome turned back to Miroku, her expression oddly sad. Shippo wanted to comfort her, though he didn't know what was wrong. His green eyes grew troubled, and his treat was abandoned on the wood planking beside him as he jumped down the steps and bound over to Kagome's red-wrapped leg. Pushing at the draping cloth, Shippo found her leg finally and hugged it fiercely in his paws.  
  
"Don't worry, Kagome! I'm here!" He said.  
  
Kagome bent over to pat his rusty-orange head even as she told Miroku, "Be safe, and bring them back---quickly."  
  
"I will, Kagome-sama." Miroku was suddenly serious, his blue eyes dark. With a jangle of his ringed staff, the neko's paws roared to fiery life, and they were up and away with a powerful leap. Shippo lifted his green eyes to follow the blazing trail of the cat's flight, and hugged Kagome's leg with all the fierceness he could muster in his little body. He could tell that Kagome was somehow both hopeful and sad, impatient and reluctant---all at the same time.  
  
"They're okay, right, Kagome?" Shippo wanted reassurance.  
  
Kagome knelt down, untangling him from her leg and hugging him to her. Shippo liked that, and hugged her back, nestling into her comforting embrace. "Yes, Shippo. They're all right. Miroku is just going to make sure."  
  
"Good." Shippo snuggled, before a thought had him sit back in Kagome's arms with a big, pleady-eyed look that had never failed him in the past.  
  
"Ooh...Kagome...I dropped my treat...the one with honey all over it...the one Lady Kaede gave me...do you...do you think I could have another?"  
  
.............................  
  
A clawed hand reached out towards her. "Sango? What's going on?"  
  
The taijiya's brown eyes closed, and tears mingled in the dark feathers of her lashes, but did not fall down her pale cheeks. She shuddered, her hands closing over the lightly glowing Jewel shard she held in her palms.  
  
InuYasha regarded the proud slayer with confusion. 'What the hell is going on? Where's...'  
  
He froze, looking around him with shock. Even though it was dark, rolling storm clouds obscuring the full moon, the rain had stopped, and he could see the wreckage around him. He sniffed lightly, his senses telling him that there was blood---youkai blood, and plenty of it, spilled everywhere. The rain had soaked it into the ground, but not cleared the deforested clearing of the stench of it.  
  
There was more...  
  
His ears flattened as he regarded his hands in shock. There was blood covering them from wrist to nail-edge, and he growled low in his throat in confused anger.  
  
'What the hell HAPPENED?'  
  
Sango shied away from him at his growl, and his head whipped up to look at her. His amber eyes focused on the slight glow in her hands.  
  
'A Jewel shard?'  
  
Other smells distracted him, and he could smell the blood of ningen. There was a body somewhere to the left, but the wounds seemed cold. There was more, closer to him.  
  
His amber eyes lighted back on Sango, and he saw the faint blood- streaks on one wrist.  
  
"Sango?" He asked tentatively. Something had happened, something really bad. He extended a bloody hand. "You're hurt..."  
  
"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" The taijiya screamed, whirling away from him with a broken cry.  
  
InuYasha's eyes widened in shock, his hand falling to dig in the dirt beneath him.  
  
'Sango...?'  
  
..................................................  
  
A/N: A few notes, I'm in a hurry to post this chappie, so I'll write more in the next one. Special note to Terri Botta, who wrote "The Lucky Ones", an awesome I/K fic on ff.net that has provided me with a LOT of information regarding inu youkai behavior. Special thanks to reviewers such as Feminafures (WOW, thanks for the VOC on aff.net), Kilala81, and AmyFushigiyugi. Kilala81 has an awesome fic on mm.org and A Single Spark called "Secrets of the Shinju" (4 part series), and AmyFushigiyugi, besides many inspiring fics, has a way-cool website animedefiance.com. Angelcutie, I'll plug your fic in the next chappie—I love it, and am running out of time to post! Other thanks go to Wicca and Fyyrrose for having me fall out of my chair laffing...THANK YOU! And to all else, continued thanks for all the reviews and encouragement! 


	34. Chapter ThirtyThree Revelation

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, and I don't own any money. Suing would be a waste, no?  
  
A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update, but I just started a new job and this chappie was the (bleep) to write. Sessy is a difficult card to diagnose. I made up for it with a l-o-n-g chapter, though! A bit of dark imagery, and one explanation of doggy behavior (friend suggested I add this in). In a pack, if the alpha dog turns his back on an "erring" dog, he is rejecting him, and it can be the ultimate in punishment, signifying the loss of his pack (including security, companionship, etc.) Very bad. I found this behavior first mentioned in my 'Net research, but I also found it skillfully depicted in Terri Botta's "The Lucky Ones".  
  
Thank you for the continued reviews and next update will be on Tuesday, promise!  
  
WARNING: SOME DARK IMAGERY. (Word edit on ff.net.)  
  
Chapter Thirty-Three (Revelation)  
  
Dawn came with a slow lightening of the formless clouds that covered the horizon. The tumultuous storms of the night before had passed over the Western Lands, but they had dragged after them the heavy cloud cover that dominated the landscape.  
  
SesshouMaru awaited the coming of dawn, his eyes spying out the panorama spread out before him, the very height of the Western Tower stretching it before his eyes from one horizon to another. He had watched silently as formless shadows had grown to familiar grey-black shapes, and then the faded dullness of a cloud-covered dawn.  
  
His instincts told him that the clouds would not dissipate, at least not this day.  
  
A slight flash of red tinged his eyes for a moment, and he almost growled.  
  
Curling his mouth in self-derision, the gold of his eyes glowed more brightly in response to the stirring inu youkai in his blood. The inu was impatient that he would not see what he wanted, would not view the surrounding lands that he claimed as his own.  
  
His inu nature, once tightly controlled, now seethed beneath the surface, as if taunting him with its presence.  
  
'Intolerable.'  
  
Closing his eyes on the greyed horizon of his lands that stretched below him, the Taiyoukai grappled momentarily with the reluctant admittance that he would have to learn how to tolerate it. The inu, once so tightly leashed, was now freed. And although he had won dominance over it, it would never remain locked away as it had.  
  
A sudden memory came to him, a picture stirring across the many long, dusty years of half-forgotten time. He growled softly, claws slightly clenching as he pictured his mother once more.  
  
Her cold voice haunted him in an echo of his own.  
  
'Intolerable...'  
  
As cold as she was beautiful, the Lady of the West had borne no other name. If she had, her only son had not been told it. She was the pride of the inu youkai court, as pure-blooded and ruthless, as proud and vain as any of them. She had been the only---surviving---child of the old lord, and his father, InuTaisho, had fought his way to the top of the pack from lowly orphanage as the son of a lower general in the old lord's army. When InuTaisho had defeated the old lord, and the old lord lay dying from his many wounds, the old lord had demanded that the new Lord marry his only daughter, thus ensuring the survival of his blood.  
  
There was none more beautiful or sought than the Lady, and a part of InuTaisho had reveled in claiming the proud daughter for his own. And so the old lord had passed to the new, assured that his pure, noble bloodline and august heritage would continue. As the light had faded from his pale yellow eyes, the marriage ceremony had taken place, and the old lord had passed from this world contented.  
  
But there was little contentment between the new Lord of the Western Lands, InuTaisho, and his Lady. The Lady had been of a proud and haughty ancestry, and she did not take well to the low blood of an interloper mixing with hers. SesshouMaru had been too young to really take more than a passing note of their coldness to each other.  
  
When he was very young, his father had been away much of the time, extending his lands and defeating (and creating) enemies with a singular lust for power that had outstripped sanity at times. There were rumors, from various indiscreet conversations overheard as he lurked in the shadows, that it was the Lady's cold bed that drove the Lord into war. As a child, SesshouMaru had not truly understood what that meant; for himself, it meant that he had never seen his father except on rare occaisions that the distant and terribly austere Lord chose to see him. He had known only of his mother, and the Lady could not hide her personal distaste for him.  
  
Another memory, as keen-edged as a sword, slipped through his guard, and his claws grew as the inu stirred in anger over the past.  
  
He could not have been more than nine summers old when his mother had summoned him to her rooms. He could remember with a mild sense of disgust at his own hesitancy as he stopped outside the door to her rooms. He could remember hearing her cold, arrogant voice through the door as if it were yesterday...  
  
..................................  
  
The wood paneling of the door was intricately carved, and he traced the interweaving vines with a white claw-tip, not truly desiring to push open the door to face the Lady within. He could already hear her voice--- that cold, distant voice that always made him feel uncertain and foolish.  
  
Inadequate.  
  
"Where is the cur?" Her voice was raised in cold anger, and he flinched. The Lady had never addressed him by name when he was not with her. She might have been surprised if she had known just how many times he had listened to her, how many times he had sought her out, standing in the darkened corners where she would not sense him, hoping for some sign that she could love him, that he was worthy of her love.  
  
How many times she had denied him, despised him and derided him.  
  
"We have sent for him, my lady." The soft voice of one of his mother's maids was wrapped with whispered fear---and for good reason. The Lady was impatient with delay and quick to anger.  
  
There was a harsh crack of flesh hitting flesh, and the young youkai who hesitated at the door flinched at the soft cry that accompanied it.  
  
"Incompetent fool! Cringing little whore! I will not tolerate your--- "  
  
SesshouMaru, not wanting to hear more---he had already witnessed his mother's brutal revenge on inefficiency, and the dead were hung on the ramparts to stare sightlessly out as a reminder to others of the Lady's arbitrary wrath, hurriedly pushed open the door, dropping his eyes from the cruel delight in the Lady's face as she held her cowering servant up by one arm, her other hand, claws elongated, ready to strike.  
  
He hid a reflexive cringe as the Lady dropped her victim to the floor, and bowed as the other maids scrambled to take the terrified servant away from the Lady's sight.  
  
He never saw the maid again, but he never witnessed her body hanging on the front wall either. The youkai had been one of the few to escape the Lady's wrath.  
  
"SesshouMaru."  
  
He raised his eyes, hoping that the Lady would not be angry with him as well. The Lady was terrible in her wrath, and his mind desperately worked, trying to think of anything he might have done that displease her.  
  
But the Lady's coldly more-yellow-than-gold eyes held nothing of anger, and, of course, nothing of love. Instead, the look she gave him was aloof and calculating. She relaxed slightly, and waved a clawed hand airily at him to follow her. The flash of sparkled gems in the blue-white light of her rooms almost made him wince. One of the Lady's few weaknesses was her fondness for pretty---and expensive---jewels.  
  
"Come."  
  
He followed her, silently, obediently, as she left her sumptiously appointed rooms and headed out into the terraced gardens that her chosen wing of the castle surrounded. The courtyard, much like his mother, was kept impeccably neat, the rows of preferred flowers preserved in tight formation and cut back to display their aloof beauty. As a young pup, he remembered trying to play in that garden, and not feeling any ease that he might dare to run through the carefully pruned trees and plants. The one time he had---accidently---trampled over a young, flowering rose-bush, the Lady had not punished him. No, she had punished the gardener who should have been attending him.  
  
SesshouMaru's punishment had been to watch the gardener's slow, torturous death and to hear the youkai's dying screams echoing in his young mind for weeks afterward, making him lie awake in fear at night, afraid to hear those howls revived in his dreams. His nurses, who dared not comfort him or face the Lady's same wrath, had still protected him in their own way- --by not breathing a word of knowledge to his mother's ears of the night terrors that gripped him. If she had known, she would have punished him further for despicable timidity.  
  
Fear, even the whisper of it, would not be tolerated in a true- blooded inu, the heir to the Western Lands.  
  
The Lady seemed to be in a strange, introspective mood, and SesshouMaru followed her quietly, not wanting to draw her sudden attention-- -or the immediate arousal of her rage---toward him. He trailed the Lady for some time as she walked the carefully manicured rows of her gardens, following the soft scrape of her sandaled footsteps over the stoned paths, the swish of her long, formal court robes an odd counterpoint to the burble of a flowing fountain in the center.  
  
She eventually circled the garden, and directed her steps to the fountain's pool in the center. The slight noise of the rippling water increased, and he kept his ears alert for the slightest hint from her that she was ready to speak, to tell him what she wanted of him.  
  
He watched the carefully brushed stones at his feet as she stood watching the slow waves of the pond for what seemed like hours. He dared not stir, else her wrath be lighted with "indecent" movement.  
  
Finally, the Lady turned to face him, and SesshouMaru raised his eyes, wanting to flinch under that arrogantly cold gaze but daring not to. The Lady had taught him early on that to show expression was to show his despised heritage of his father's strong, barbarous blood—and not to be tolerated.  
  
"My son." She said, the words a long drawl of honey over-riding the faint sense of cold contempt. The pale, yellow eyes flicked over him with calculation, appraising him. SesshouMaru straightened under her gaze, bringing his own head up and facing her stiffly.  
  
"I am pleased that you bear more resemblance to me than to your father." Her lips curled over that last word in a sudden flicker of sneering disgust. By this time, SesshouMaru knew exactly how much the Lady hated and abhorred her husband.  
  
"Perhaps it will be your salvation."  
  
His eyes widened slightly at her introspective words, but the Lady dismissed his unvoiced question with a wave of her white hand. Ignoring him for the moment, she seated herself on the fountain's edge, carefully arranging the beautiful silks of her robes so that they draped around her to the best, visually artistic, advantage. One did not ignore the little details.  
  
He waited, uneasiness and uncertainty tumbling through his mind, but daring not to stir so much as an inch.  
  
The Lady stared into the distance, as if weighing her words, overlooking him for what seemed like hours, but was probably only moments. Eventually, her chilling gaze swept back towards him, and she stared at him, her yellow-gold eyes intent.  
  
"You are my son, the last child of a long, proud line. The blood of the Taiyoukai flows through you. Although your blood has been tainted with the baser beginnings of your father's, it still has in it my own blood, and my family's. You have exceeded my expectations of you. I am pleased."  
  
SesshouMaru's magenta-striped cheeks flushed with pleasure at the scarce praise, and his mother's mouth twisted in immediate anger, her eyes bleeding slightly as she abruptly stood up, crossing the stoned surface between them to come and strike him sharply with her open-handed palm.  
  
"Cur! This emotion does not become you!"  
  
SesshouMaru huddled on the stone, not daring to move lest she strike him again. Blood smeared his pale cheek where one of her heavy rings had scraped the skin.  
  
The Lady's eyes flashed with the red of her wrath, and she snarled at him. "You are nothing but a worthless dog!"  
  
SesshouMaru dared not breathe, lest she become truly enraged.  
  
Slowly, the red stain dissipated from the light golden eyes, and his mother stood there, her coldly arrogant face still once more in its concealing mask of indifference. Her icy words, however, cut him deeper than if she had slapped him once more.  
  
"See what you do to me? You make me lose control, and that is intolerable. I despise you. If it were not for your birth, I would have been free to---"  
  
She cut herself off abruptly, her beautifully cruel mouth whitening as her eyes glowed almost as golden as his father's. Deliberately turning her back, SesshouMaru felt her rejection of him down to his core, and he sat with lost misery as the Lady's quick steps took her from the gardens, away from him.  
  
His last view of her had been the long, silky white hair that was knotted in intricate coils on the top and allowed to flow freely down her back to touch the stone-sweeping skirts of her outer kimono...  
  
................................  
  
A faint growl heated him, and his own eyes glowed for a moment at the memory. Long buried underneath the dust of time, he was slightly surprised that it would surface now. But with everything else, it needed to be re- examined, and closely.  
  
It was not long after that, that his mother's plot to rid herself of her despised Lord had surfaced. The Lady had brought shame to her ancestors- --she had taken one of his father's more ambitious generals as a lover, one she deemed worthy of her blood and infatuated enough to follow her lead, and consorted with him to assassinate InuTaisho during one of the many campaigns that took him from the castle.  
  
The Lady's lover, of course, had been defeated by InuTaisho, and his wrath over the Lady's betrayal had known no bounds. Servants and nurses, fearful of his, SesshouMaru's, safety in the blinding bloodlust of the Lord's inu rage, had hidden him in the lowest dungeons of the castle. SesshouMaru remembered how they had huddled, their unspoken fear making him uneasy and frightened, and how it had been then, as he watched their silent terror of the inu blood-rage, that he had vowed to never allow that rage to rule him.  
  
His father had eventually come for him, but it was not with the red rage of the inu. It was, instead, the regret of a father who barely knew his son, and sought to rectify that.  
  
But InuTaisho was still unsure of how to address the stiffly formal, overly quiet youkai who was his only son. SesshouMaru could also sense that his father was uneasy with him, that he reminded the Lord of his dead wife in the more aristocratic lines of his face, and in the more white than silver silk of his hair.  
  
When he had dared to ask after his mother, after her welfare, InuTaisho had reacted with biting rage, the inu blood coursing through him causing him to strike out at one of the poor servants who had braved the Lord's wrath and hidden the son. The youkai servant had died in screaming torture under the bloody claws of the enraged inu Lord, and SesshouMaru had witnessed, first hand, just what that seething blood-rage could do.  
  
InuTaisho had fought back his rage, and he had once more been the severely abrupt Lord who did not know what to say to his son. He had ignored the dying cries of the servant as if it meant nothing to him, and he had told his frightened son that the (witch) who had been his mother was now dead, that she had expiated her shame by committing suicide.  
  
SesshouMaru had fallen to his knees, the tears erupting inside of him, although he did not know why, to this day, he had cried for the Lady who had never loved him. He had hated her at times, despised her cruelty and her easily-invoked wrath, raged internally over her contempt for him, wept for her indifference and her haughty disdain, reveled in her icy control and her beauty. He had tried, desperately, to win some semblance of pride from her, and now he never would.  
  
InuTaisho had not known what to say to him. His father had been taken aback by his reaction to the curt news of his mother's death, and, in his own way, his father had tried to comfort him. Smacking his back with the bloody claws of his hand like he was a comrade at arms, the Lord had almost joked, "Come now. Be you a man or a youkai? You're much too old for tears, boy."  
  
The tears had disappeared, but the cold feeling of distance and separation between them never would.  
  
It was then that SesshouMaru had determined that emotions...all emotions, rage, love, jealousy, bitterness, disappointment, failure...all of them were unworthy of him. He would not tolerate, in himself, any of the coarse feelings and behaviors that he had witnessed in either of his parents...  
  
The air in the Western Tower was chilled by the height of the upper reaches, and the wind that circled through the Tower distracted him with its icy kiss. Opening intensely golden eyes, gift of his father, the Taiyoukai stared dispassionately below him as the low-lying clouds of the morning swept under him, obscuring even the dull green glimpse of his forested lands.  
  
Golden eyes turned from the clouded vista, as the slight pain of his palm told him just how tightly he had clenched his single fist at the returning memory of his cold mother. Opening the hand, he examined the red gouges his sharp nails had laid across the palm. A single bead of blood reminded him, abruptly, of how easily the inu rage had taken control of him last night...how easily it had controlled his brother.  
  
He had despised his half-human brother since the conception of his birth. One of the things that his mother had taught him was that his blood, the youkai blood, was a proud heritage, one not to be taken lightly. And his father, whom he had grown over the years to respect, if not love, as a great inu Lord, had mingled his blood with one of the lowest known...a human.  
  
Many years had passed from the death of the Lord's first wife and his claiming of a second. The ferocious warrior consumed in expanding his borders that had marked InuTaisho in his younger days had turned into a contemplative youkai who, although still mighty in his power, did not feel the need to continually assert his dominion as Lord of the West. His interests had turned to the pursuit of knowledge, and in this, SesshouMaru had finally shared something with his father. Their tense, constrained relationship had grown into something bordering on mutual respect and acceptance. By that time, SesshouMaru had grown from a stiffly formal, quiet child into the first strength and certainty of a young youkai, assured of his position and station in life.  
  
The tentative relationship had been destroyed when his father took a ningen mate.  
  
Lips curling with disdain at the thought, SesshouMaru remembered when his father, the once feared Taiyoukai, had brought home his captured bride. The woman had defied her family's wishes (and arrangement for marriage to a "suitable" ningen daimyo) and had married the youkai Lord instead. SesshouMaru had never cared to find out how his father had initially met the ningen woman, who, though beautiful, was still a ningen, and should never have been allowed to mate an inu Lord.  
  
The ningen had changed his father, and not to the Lord's benefit. SesshouMaru had seperated himself from them in disgust, taking the excuse of traveling in the pursuit of seeking to understand the strange world outside of known borders, so that he might not witness the humiliation of having the great InuTaisho reduced to the role of doting husband.  
  
. He had traveled the ningen world, seeking out knowledge like his mother, the Lady, had once sought fine gems. His father sent greetings to him, from time to time, but SesshouMaru ignored the missives. He knew, if he bided his time, that the weak ningen would eventually pass from this world, and then, perhaps, he might desire to return to the Western Lands. But his disgust with his father, his haunting sense of betrayal from a youkai lord he had come to admire, might not have let him.  
  
He had come, however, when his father sent word that he was celebrating the birth of a son.  
  
'A son...'  
  
A hanyou son. A revolting half-breed who bore the taint of its ningen mother in its weakness. He had looked on the babe, and withdrawn into cold contempt at the indulgent look in his father's golden eyes as he beamed over the boy.  
  
"I have named him InuYasha."  
  
The memory of his father's proud voice still made him icy with outrage.  
  
His father had never been so proud of him, his true son, his first- born. And yet he grinned over the babe like it was a gift of the spirits, his love for the pathetic little half-breed only surpassed by the love he held for the hanyou's ningen mother...  
  
'Could I have been jealous?'  
  
Impossible.  
  
He had never sought his father's esteem like he had the Lady's. By the time of her death, he had not needed it, no longer desired it.  
  
He had left in disgust, refusing to speak further with his father, knowing that his fury at this abomination would forever sunder what relationship they did have.  
  
He had left, returning to the distant lands that had held his interest at the time, paying court to the countless youkai who would treat him with the respect due his position and birth, burying his disappointment in his father's betrayal of their inu blood in icy disdain.  
  
He had not replied to any further missives sent by his father. He could not.  
  
And in the end, his silence had killed the Lord.  
  
The taking of a ningen bride had spread the rumors throughout the Lands that his father's power was now diminished. Ambitious youkai, determined to test InuTaisho's strength, had nipped at his borders. While these minor disturbances had been easily dealt with, the unrest had attracted the attention of more formidable opponents, and his father had been badly wounded in battling the most formidable of all.  
  
'Ryukotsusei.'  
  
InuTaisho had, in the end, triumphed. The great dragon had been nullified, his powers sealed into dormancy by the claw that pierced his heart to the rock beneath. He had gone to see the body of the dragon youkai himself, hoping to catch some trace of his father, to expiate the faint sense of guilt that he, SesshouMaru, had not been there to fight by his father's side.  
  
The battle had cost the great Lord dearly. In time, InuTaisho would have recovered his strength, but he had not been given time. The neko tribes to the north had taken advantage of InuTaisho's weakness, and his father had gone to meet them, wounded and under strength.  
  
The neko had lost countless youkai in that final battle, but their sheer numbers had overwhelmed the great Lord, and eventually he had lain close enough to death that his inu nature, his blood-demon, had taken control. The blinding rage of his inu blood would not let him stop until he had killed every youkai and ningen in the area, and the wounds inflicted on him had bled until the dog demon had died in disgrace, a pathetic, raging shadow of his former glory.  
  
The restless youkai of the Western Lands had immediately turned the prosperous domain into a blood-bath of fighting factions, and InuTaisho's ningen wife had fled the province with her hanyou boy, taking him to live with her family, who had taken them in with ill-disguised reluctance.  
  
Word had finally reached him of his father's death, and SesshouMaru had quickly returned to the Western Lands, to claim his right as Taiyoukai, and defeat the many fools who would contend it. It had taken him years to subdue the various enemies his father had created in his years living with a ningen whore, and when he had finally been able to expunge his borders of any threat and consolidate his power, SesshouMaru had gone looking for his father's mate.  
  
Blood honor demanded no less.  
  
But the weak ningen woman had died, and there was no word of her hanyou son.  
  
Not that he could get much from the corpse of the ningen woman's daimyo father after he had slaughtered the man for his derogatory comments regarding the hanyou brat. The woman's father had despised the marriage of his beautiful daughter to a youkai lord, and hated the resulting half-breed as much as SesshouMaru did. But a Taiyoukai did not suffer the nasty natters of a ningen upstart.  
  
The man's blood had stained the walls, and SesshouMaru had taken delight in the screaming riot that had consumed the daimyo's paltry home. He had chased down two or three more servants, upper advisors of the dead lord's who might tell him where the hanyou brat had gone. But they had died under his impatient claws, their pathetic begging to spare their lives making him curl with disgust at their weakness.  
  
And that had been that.  
  
Until he had learned of his father's last gift to his two sons. Twin swords, formed from his fangs by the often-underestimated sword-smith, Totosai. His sword, Tenseiga, had been waiting for him to claim it. He had felt, for a brief time, that the great Lord had finally seen his true worth as the dog demon's only pure-blooded youkai heir.  
  
Until he realized just what a pathetic gift he had been given. A sword that did not cut, that did not kill, that did not strengthen. The rage he had felt at his father's betrayal had almost consumed him. If it had not been for the tight control he kept over his inu blood, he would have fallen prey to it. When he realized that the true fang, the mighty Tetsusaiga, which could have increased his power nearly ten-fold, had been destined for the half-breed...  
  
There was a faint pull at his side, interrupting his dark thoughts.  
  
'Tenseiga...you speak more freely to me.'  
  
Perhaps his father had not given his such a weak imitation after all...  
  
Tenseiga had proven its worth, quite a few times. Not the least of which had been last night, when the fang had called him back from the inu rage, and helped his soul to subdue his nature. Without it, he might not have won the contest of wills...  
  
'Tenseiga was made for the first son, and Tetsusaiga for the second. Each to protect, and each to guide.'  
  
The words written in an ink-splattered message from the sword-smith who forged the twin blades. He had found the missive on his father's desk, in the very study he had claimed as his own. Perhaps it had been the last message the great Lord had read, before going off to an ignoble death in the bloodied rage of the inu youkai.  
  
Perhaps his father had known that both of his sons needed protection and guidance.  
  
He regarded the claws of his one hand, seeing the red blood that covered them the night before. The red blood of his hanyou brother, whose own claws, so similar, were covered in his blood.  
  
'Blood...'  
  
Blood he shared with his brother...  
  
Part of his mind curled away from the thought in familiar disgust, while another started at the sudden revelation of it.  
  
InuYasha was his brother.  
  
InuYasha was not human, was not hanyou, was not a despicable half- breed whose birth had tainted the pure blood of his father.  
  
He was inu.  
  
'Impossible.'  
  
And yet...it was.  
  
'It changes nothing.'  
  
It changed everything. 


	35. Chapter ThirtyFour: Amazing

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
A/N: Wow! Forty-Seven emails alone! Thank you very much for all the response, and I promise some more Kagome interaction in the next few chapters. I did promise to have this chapter out by Tuesday, and w-e-l-l, it's still Tuesday night, my time...lol. Work caught up with me. :P Special thanks to Vyncent, River, and Shiro Ryu for renewed inspirations, and to Wyldwolfrose for nominating my fic on SavageAnimeFanfiction. Whooee! My first nomination ever! Thanks again for all the reviews and inspiration!  
  
Side Note: I think aff.net has kicked the bucket (main server went down). This fic is still being updated on S'Spark (NC17) and ff.net (R-Rated).  
  
Chapter Thirty-Four (Amazing)  
  
Ginta was so tired he was nearly falling over from exhaustion. Koga had sped out of the caverns last night like his tail was on fire, and no one had seen him since. Without their leader's countermanding orders, Ginta had stayed where he was...miserably guarding the manure trenches and desperately trying not to breathe in too much of the awful stench.  
  
The butt of his spear-shaft was sunk into the dirt beside him, and the spear was the only thing propping him up as he blinked wearily at the early mists of dawn. The sun had not yet risen, and the world was written in grey and white shadows around him, everything washed in an other-worldly haze.  
  
Three red-brown wolves had kept him company all night, and even they had abandoned him to go curl up under a tree, their light snores and occasional wuffs of dreaming reflex the only sounds in the silent world around him.  
  
Ginta yawned widely, fang-tips showing as he shook his grey head, trying to fight off sleep. His ears perked slightly when he heard the tentative, first-morning call of a distant bird in the thick forests that bordered the caverns. Blinking, he turned to peer at the grey-green trees, and winced when he caught a hearty whiff of nauseating aroma behind him.  
  
"Egh..." Nose wrinkling, he faced toward the caverns once more, one wrist coming up to rub across his nose and sleep-heavy eyes.  
  
The bird piped twice, trying again to break the early morning fog.  
  
'I hate birds...' Ginta thought, scowling slightly.  
  
"GINTA."  
  
The wolf youkai nearly shot two feet up in the air, before his sunken spear-shaft and his own tight grip on it brought him back down to nearly fall over on adrenaline-shaken legs. Suddenly wide awake, he gaped.  
  
"Koga?"  
  
Koga growled at him, arms crossed and light blue eyes narrowed. Ginta bit his lip, and tried to look casually unconcerned.  
  
"Morning, Koga."  
  
Koga scowled. "Get Hakkaku and some of the others. We're going."  
  
"G-Going?" Ginta blinked red-rimmed eyes, before a huge yawn split his mouth wide open. His hand fisted over it in surprise, and he flushed. Ducking his head at the narrowing of Koga's blue eyes, he mumbled an apology.  
  
"Get going. Tell Hakkaku to bring that damn woman."  
  
Ginta perked up. "You mean Yura?"  
  
"KAGURA, you idiot!"  
  
"S-Sorry, Koga!" Ginta ducked instinctively, but Koga wasn't swinging- --yet---this morning.  
  
"Just go!" Koga growled out.  
  
"Y-Yes! Right away!" Knowing with a sinking feeling that getting to sleep was going to be a lost cause, Ginta yanked his spear-butt out of the ground and sped up the rocky incline toward the cave entrance. His three lazy friends, who had raised their heads at Koga's sudden appearance, watched him go, opening their wide jaws in various, unsympathetic yawns before slipping the big furry heads back to their paws and closing their eyes.  
  
'Lucky louts.'  
  
.......................  
  
The jagged end of the purified Shikon shard pressed hard against her tightened fist, and Sango kept her head down as her dragging footsteps took her away from the blood-splattered hanyou behind her and toward the blood- splattered corpse of her brother that lay before. Her eyes were clenched as tightly as her fists, trying to keep the tears at bay. She knew she should turn around and go to InuYasha. He was badly wounded, and confused. He was not the blood-driven inu demon now.  
  
But part of her could not.  
  
She had to do this...had to do this last thing for her brother...  
  
'Kohaku.'  
  
His name was a lost echo in her mind. She had failed him.  
  
And she had chosen.  
  
'InuYasha...'  
  
Even in the darkness of that horrible, cloud-churned night, she could make out the white blur of her brother's empty face. She could see in her mind the wide-opened eyes with their pain-etched fear.  
  
'My poor little brother...I could not protect you.'  
  
Falling to her knees by his side, heedless of the sopping mud that squelched under her legs, she let out a harsh sound, before reaching out one hand---the one not fisted around the Jewel shard---and stroked the cold cheek of the young boy.  
  
Blinking back the fierce sadness that gripped her, her fingers slowly traced the delicate line of his brows, brushing back the wet locks from his forehead in a loving caress before gliding over the opened, blank eyes to close the delicate lids over them in a semblance of sleep.  
  
'May peace come to you now, Kohaku.'  
  
Her hand fell away, and she knew InuYasha was there, beside her.  
  
"Kohaku."  
  
Sango said nothing.  
  
"Sango, what happened?"  
  
Fingers gripped over the Shikon shard, and she said in an incredibly flat, emotionless voice, "Goshinki killed Kohaku. You killed Goshinki."  
  
She could feel his amber eyes resting on her for a long moment, but she could not move from the spot beside her brother. Her eyes stayed focused on the shadowed ground, the wet tangles of her bangs slithering over her forehead and cheeks. Her wrist, wounded by Kohaku's chained scythe, throbbed dully, but she ignored the pain.  
  
She jerked as a strong hand rested for a moment on her bowed head, the claws tangling slightly in her black hair. She froze in place, as a fleeting image of the blood-demon, red eyes glowing and claws dripping, stabbed through the numbness.  
  
The hand was removed, and she raised desperate eyes to watch in confoundment as the hanyou rested those hands, darkened with dried blood, on the clasping claws of the dead Goshinki. Kohaku's body was trapped between those claws, and she, with all of her personal desperation, had not been able to move them.  
  
With a grunt of effort, InuYasha used his enhanced strength to spread the claws that had trapped her brother into death. Brown eyes widened in shock, Sango stared as the hanyou bent over the limp form of her brother, scooping him up like the child he was, and then laying him carefully in front of her.  
  
"InuYasha..." Her whisper was nearly inaudible.  
  
"Couldn't damn well leave him there." InuYasha made a faint try for his normally abrasive demeanor, but the brusque words were lacking their customary bite. With a long sigh of feigned exasperation, InuYasha slid down beside her to sit cross-legged in the mud, neither of them heeding the soggy earth that covered most of them anyway.  
  
Sango turned her head away from his glowing gaze. Even in the darkness of the dissipating storms, she could see the golden flash of his eyes and the silvery-whiteness, streaked with filth, of his long hair. Choked emotion gripped her, and she fought it back, seeking control.  
  
"So what the hell happened?"  
  
Sango just shook her head, unable to form words around the inner battle she was losing with herself.  
  
The bloodied claws extended to her shoulder, and InuYasha's voice was hesitant, almost soft. "Sango?" He could smell the tears that burned behind her closed eyes.  
  
"I...can't..." She shook with the emotions that were burning up and over the tight rein she kept over them.  
  
"Uh...you're not crying are you?" InuYasha's voice had that familiar hint of helpless fear, and she wanted, suddenly, hysterically, to laugh. There was nothing that sent the hanyou running faster than a woman's tears...  
  
The laughter upset the balance, and she ducked her head, a tear falling down her cheek. "I'm...sorry." She said, feeling pathetic and miserable and hating herself and him for seeing her weakness.  
  
A hesitant hand came to pat her awkwardly on the back, in a feeble attempt at comfort.  
  
"Um..." All the awkward hesitation he was feeling was put in that single word.  
  
Something broke inside Sango. Perhaps it was the feeling of something beside her that was living...breathing...CLOSE...  
  
She didn't care, at that moment, what he thought or she thought or how he was going to react, or truly, how she should act. All the raw emotion poured through her, and she turned and flung herself into his arms, the deep sobs of loss and sorrow heaving out of the very heart of her as the tears ran unchecked down her face.  
  
InuYasha blinked in shock, before his arms instinctively came up to cradle her like a pup against him. Confusion and astonishment played tag in his mind, and he clumsily tried to pat her back as she sobbed against him, her tears soaking into the red haori that was damp already from the rain, and stiff from the dried blood of unknown foes.  
  
They were there for some time, Sango's harsh tears giving way to soft heaves, and then to stilled silence. She felt protected, for once, and did not want to let that go. Her head rested against his shoulder, and his arms encircled her, holding her exhausted body up against him. She felt no fear of those claws now, and a sudden memory pierced the fog of her released sorrow.  
  
She was pinned beneath him, unable to move, the blood-red eyes glowing with more than the lust for blood. She saw again as he bared his fangs, and she shivered.  
  
And not from fear...  
  
Lifting her head, she looked at him.  
  
To find him staring down at her.  
  
The night was lightening into the pale indigo and azure of coming dawn, and his features were revealed, the silvery-white gleam of his hair an aura surrounding the darker shadows of his face. The amber glow of his eyes was almost goldened in their intensity, as the concern shifted into something more...  
  
'InuYasha...'  
  
She blushed, uncertain of the feelings that now tumbled through her mind, uneasy with the sudden awareness that he was there, surrounding her in his embrace. His eyes darkened further, as if he too, could suddenly feel their physical proximity.  
  
She closed her eyes, and softly shook her head.  
  
There was too much, too many, between them...  
  
"Sango?" His name was a wondering whisper on his lips, and she wanted to cry again, feeling as if she had finally reached for something that had always been locked away from her, and that she must not.  
  
'Kagome.'  
  
Kagome loved him, and he loved her. There would never be any other for him. She knew this, and even if her heart bled from the raw wound of that knowledge, then she must be forever wounded.  
  
"I'm sorry." She said softly, head bowed, before she slithered out of his arms and knelt back on her heels. She turned her head away, not wanting him to see her pain, and wrestled to contain the sudden swamp of emotions that filled her. Shaking her head again, she summoned the strength to stand.  
  
To stand alone once more.  
  
The familiar containment of calm purpose was closing in around her, and her hands, slightly shaking, reached for the hilt of her katana, as if seeking the firm hold of the familiar.  
  
Her voice was harsh even to her own ears. "We must go."  
  
"Sango, you..." She could hear him swiftly rise to his feet behind her, and a part of her was amazed at the ability of the hanyou to heal himself.  
  
He was so strong...  
  
She turned to face him, her eyes cold and distant. "I was weak. I apologize. We will not speak of it again."  
  
He seemed to close in on himself, the worry and wonder blanked behind the return of his armor against the world who refused to let him in. "Fine! I'm not the one who was crying all over the place! Let's go then, we've wasted enough time. Damn it, anyway."  
  
That last was said as he looked at the dried blood that stained his claws. He turned his back, and stalked off to find the nearest spring. Sango's mind was too exhausted and numbed to remember where it might lie, but she, too, wished for a bath. She watched him as he disappeared into the forest, the trees darkening as the sky lightened in early morning, her eyes hard even as her heart wept.  
  
Something roared.  
  
She half-drew her sword in pure instinct as she whirled around, dark eyes searching for that ominous sound.  
  
"SANGO!"  
  
Her eyes widened as she saw the flaming trail of the fire-cat descending toward her. Rings tingled faintly on the wind, and the houshi's staff was waved at her as his dark blue and purple robes swirled in the raised wind of the neko's descent.  
  
Kirara roared again, her red eyes glowing warmly, her roar one of glad discovery and smug achievement.  
  
"Miroku! Kirara!" The katana slid home as she freed both arms to wave back at them. She watched as the cream-colored youkai landed, the monk's blue robes rustling into stillness as he stared around the littered battlefield with frank appraisal, brows raised.  
  
"What in all that's holy happened here?"  
  
Sango could only stare at him in numbed exhaustion.  
  
.........................  
  
"She did the most amazing thing. I've never seen anything like it." Miroku gave the purring neko an impressed glance.  
  
Sango yawned, stretching her arms above her head, not really paying attention. InuYasha had grudgingly allowed them a day to rest...some distance away from the disturbed battlefield. Miroku's news that Kagome was at the village under Kaede's watchful eye had pacified him enough---for now- --to take at least a day off to recuperate. Kirara's exhaustion had been a telling factor, the neko had been fairly slumped over as much as her mistress after she had transformed back to her smaller form and allowed Sango to cuddle her.  
  
Sango looked half-dead, and InuYasha wasn't much better. Miroku hadn't been able to get much out of either of them, and had had to employ several practical prayers for patience and quite a few meditative maneuvers to keep from drilling the exhausted pair with all the questions that burned in him. Both of them were covered in dirt and blood, and the carnage around them showed that a horrific battle had taken place. His own concern over Sango had been about the small body that lay not far from her.  
  
'Kohaku.'  
  
The poor lad was finally laid to rest, and the houshi had a haunting sense that this was probably the best thing for him, though he would never dream of telling Sango that. The boy had borne too many wounds of the soul to have healed easily from them, and in eternal sleep, he might have found true rest from the nightmares he had lived through.  
  
Yet another notch in the staff to be held over Naraku's accounting.  
  
InuYasha had almost attacked him, earlier, demanding to know where Kagome was, how she was doing, what the hell had happened to them all. Miroku had been patient---thanking the training of old drunken Mushin---and had been sparse with the details. He didn't know what, exactly, to tell the hanyou. Thank the spirits, InuYasha was so tired he was almost falling over, though the stubborn hanyou refused to admit it.  
  
Miroku had had to wait all day long as his friends slept and recovered their strength. Even Kirara, after her amazing transition through time and space, had been a ball of limp fur draped beside her mistress, not even her tails flicking in dreamy reaction as she slept deeper than dreams were allowed to wander...  
  
He had spent the day in quiet contemplation, in carefully wrapping Kohaku's remains and saying a silent benediction over him. As the cloud- stretched day had come to a close, he had searched for dry tinder and started a fire. Having the time, he had even fished in the nearby stream. Not as quick as InuYasha, he was still handy with a hook and line from his own travels between hostels needing a handy demon exorcized for a bed and a meal. The cooking meat had finally aroused the rest of them, and Kirara had even come over to bump his knee with her head, purring, as if she was forgiving him.  
  
Miroku flushed over that thought, and then put it neatly aside.  
  
There was plenty of time for THAT too...  
  
"Is dinner ready yet?" Sango asked him, rubbing a sore spot on her shoulder. The demon slayer was truly a beautiful woman. Too bad she had about as much use for him as the dead fish cooking over the fire.  
  
Miroku pulled the makeshift spit from the fire, and tested one of the fish. "Nearly." He said with distraction as he watched the flames flare and pop as another fish's juices dripped down into it. Putting the first fish back, he settled himself comfortably on bent knees, directing his attention back on the taijiya.  
  
Sango stared at him. "What is it?"  
  
"I am a patient man. I can wait all day, if need be."  
  
Sango frowned. "What is that supposed---"  
  
"Will you tell me, now, what happened over there?" He waved his free hand, bare of beads, toward the general direction of the abandoned battlefield.  
  
The taijiya's face was suddenly blank, an almost emotionless mask. Miroku's brows rose at the girl's sudden reaction to his question.  
  
'Something has happened to change her. Kohaku? No...something more. She is...different.'  
  
Patience was a virtue rewarded---eventually---by the spirits.  
  
In a flat, dull voice, as if she was lecturing, Sango told him in sparse detail of the battle with Goshinki. She did not deny the details, but she kept them simple. Miroku's mouth nearly fell open as she described in a few sentences how they had been attacked by a mind-reading incarnation of Naraku's, how that same incarnation had bit through the Tetsusaiga and BROKEN it. Miroku flicked his eyes upward to the tree above that he knew to hold the hanyou in its limbs, and wondered if InuYasha was hearing this.  
  
He listened with growing amazement as Sango went on to tell of Kohaku's death, and InuYasha's resurrection. A slight stirring rustle in the branches above told him that, if nothing else, the hanyou had heard THAT at least. Sango continued, unheeding of how her flat words were affecting both of them.  
  
'SesshouMaru? HERE?'  
  
He looked around the peaceful forest that surrounded their impromptu campsite, trying to picture the cold Taiyoukai, and failing. The branches above had stilled at the mention of the Lord's name, and Miroku knew that InuYasha was listening intently to Sango's bare description.  
  
'She's not telling me...us...all of it.' Miroku thought to himself, his blue eyes intent on the slayer's closed expression. 'How could the Jewel shard not save Kohaku, when it saved InuYasha?'  
  
And the Jewel had saved InuYasha...from himself.  
  
"And then you came." Sango finished, her eyes shifting away from his.  
  
'She's changed.' Miroku wanted to shake his head in sadness. Sango had never been an open book, like Kagome, but the years she had spent with the loving girl from the future had melted---a bit---the shield the proud woman kept over her heart. Now that heart was closed tightly shut once more, the defensive armor thicker than ever. She seemed as hard and steeled as the katana she wore at her side.  
  
Shaking his head, Miroku was startled out of his dark thoughts by the smell of burning fish.  
  
"Eyah!" He grimaced as he tried to grasp one of the spitted fish off the fire, and knocked the wobbly stand made of forked branches into the hungry blaze.  
  
There was a flurry from the branches above, and InuYasha was suddenly crouched beside them, amber eyes glaring at the hapless houshi as the hanyou neatly snagged the burning meat from the delighted flames.  
  
"Damn it, Miroku! Can't you even cook a stupid fish?" InuYasha was back to his old grumpy self.  
  
'Some things never change...'  
  
...........................  
  
'FINALLY.'  
  
Finally they were ready to go back to the village.  
  
Back to Kagome.  
  
They had certainly taken long enough! 'Damn humans and their damn frailty.' InuYasha didn't want to admit that he, himself, had needed to rest as much as the taijiya or the neko. He had been a lot more wounded than he cared to admit, and it had taken forever to wash the damn blood off of his claws.  
  
He instinctively shied away from that thought. There was plenty time to think about it later. After they returned to Kaede's.  
  
'And Kagome.'  
  
All three of them---well, four, if you counted Kohaku---were piled on Kirara, and the neko youkai wasn't showing much strain. InuYasha would have preferred taking to the tree-tops by himself while the fire-cat carried the other three, but Miroku had insisted they all ride.  
  
The damn monk had that stupid, mischievous grin on his face, saying that Kirara had a much faster way to travel.  
  
What the hell THAT was supposed to mean was just making InuYasha all the more irritated.  
  
'Stupid houshi.'  
  
"Kirara!" Miroku was calling over Sango's shoulder. The taijiya had Kohaku's body in her arms, her strongly muscled thighs keeping her seat. Miroku, the hentai, was being oh-so-helpful by wrapping his arms around Sango, "to support her" (yeah, right!), and InuYasha was keeping his claws to himself at the tail-end.  
  
The neko rumbled an answer as InuYasha felt the powerful body twist under him.  
  
"Take us to Kagome, three days hence!" Miroku called out, his face spilling into a wide grin.  
  
'What?'  
  
Even Sango rolled her brown eyes back toward the houshi in bewilderment.  
  
The neko only roared, and InuYasha watched in stunned disbelief as the creeping flames that surrounded the youkai's black paws seemed to grow right before his amber eyes. The orange blaze seemed to come up and around them, holding them in a ball of brilliantly trailing fire.  
  
InuYasha felt a sudden lurch, as if a rift had been ripped through time and space. The feeling was more abrupt and familiar than traveling through the Bone-Eater's well to Kagome's time. The well-gate had always felt as if he was flowing in thick air or water, free-falling, so to speak. This was more like a cutting through the dimensional fabric, and it wasn't at all comfortable.  
  
Growling low in his throat, his amber eyes glared at the chuckling houshi, irritated by Miroku's smug reminder.  
  
"Told you Kirara can do the most amazing thing!" 


	36. Chapter ThirtyFive: Soul Bond

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
WARNING: Lemon! Do not read if under 17! (Edited Lime on ff.net) You have been warned!  
  
Chapter Thirty-Five (Soul Bond)  
  
"This is a flower from the east garden---" The little girl carefully laid a smashed wisteria on the table beside him, "---and this is a flower from the south garden." A rose the pale pink of a maiden's blush, as abused as the wisteria bloom, was just as carefully deposited to join its sister- flower in glorious tribute to the mildly amused Taiyoukai of the West.  
  
"I picked the prettiest. For you." Rin smiled, the gap in her front teeth a bit smaller, as the adult tooth was finally growing in. There was a smudge of dirt across one rosy cheek, and generally he might have been irritated by it. But the Lord knew, by this time, that in the fight for cleanliness, Rin was a lost cause.  
  
He nodded his head, once, golden gaze slightly warmer than normal. The girl, so attuned to his slightest mood, immediately picked up on it and her smile widened. Jumping at him, she flung her little arms around his silk-covered knees.  
  
Gold eyes widened minutely, SesshouMaru's only reaction to the surprise of it---before a single hand came up to lightly touch the black tangles of the child's hair. Rin giggled at the slight caress, and immediately let go. She wasn't one to push.  
  
Well---for most things.  
  
"Stupid ningen! How dare you soil me lord's hakama with your dirty presence..." Jaken merely grumbled those words under his toady beak, but the Lord could hear him acutely. The imp forgot himself.  
  
"Jaken." The name was a sharp growl of command.  
  
The imp hopped to the Lord's side, his brown robes dragging on the stone floor after his hurried steps. Bowing deeply, he squeaked, "M- Master?"  
  
"Give Rin her bath and see her to bed." He ordered, leaning back in his chair.  
  
Jaken's beak wrinkled with distaste, but he had learned not to protest a direct order. "Whatever me lord desires."  
  
"Wheee!" Rin clapped her hands, dancing from foot to foot. Her brown eyes were dancing just as much as her feet, and she spun in a delighted circle, before striking a pose. "Jaken-sama, I'll race you there!" With that pronouncement, she was away on bare feet, only pausing before the door long enough to add a flippant bow toward the Taiyoukai, saying gaily, "Good night, my lord!" and disappearing into the hall.  
  
The imp's yellow orbs bulged with the ningen girl's awful manners, and he said pitifully, half to himself, "The indignities I suffer! The indignities we all suffer!"  
  
"Jaken." The Lord's voice was cold.  
  
"Yes, m-me lord?" Jaken blinked at the Taiyoukai.  
  
"You will suffer Rin's companionship, and I will hear no more about it. Treat her with the respect I demand. She is your charge now."  
  
"Wh-What?" Jaken squeaked.  
  
The golden eyes were chips of ice. "She is the reason, the only reason, I still suffer your presence."  
  
"M-Master!" The imp protested, huge tears welling up in the bloated yellow eyes.  
  
"Silence." The command was like a sword stroke, and the imp trembled. "See to your charge."  
  
"O-Of c-course, me lord! Right away!" Jaken bowed to the stone floor, and scuttled backwards toward the still-open door.  
  
Golden eyes now turned to the fire, the Taiyoukai said over his shoulder, "Tell the other servants they are dismissed for the night. I will retire."  
  
A subdued murmur of "Yes, me lord." was all he heard before the thick slam of the door echoed into the still rooms.  
  
The Taiyoukai stared unseeing into the flickering light of the fire laid out on his hearth, and sat without moving for a long time as the flames slowly ebbed into glowing coals. As the light died, the growing shadows brought SesshouMaru out of his wandering thoughts, and he abruptly stood up. Striding into the adjoining bedchamber, he lazily unclasped the clothing from around him. Digging his claws through the long fall of his white hair, he allowed himself a slight stretch, rippled muscles moving under the firmed skin. Naked, he slid between scented sheets that were already laid back in preparation for his use.  
  
Wrapping his tail up and around to use as a pillow, he settled himself, composing his mind for sleep. The golden glow of his eyes closed as his muscles relaxed, and he fell into the welcoming embrace of darkness...  
  
....................................  
  
'Tai...'  
  
He felt as if he were floating in covering darkness, senses seperated and mind calmed in a pool of silent serenity. The call was faint, the urge to answer fainter. A mere whisper that eddied along the deep, still pool of his quiescent soul...  
  
'...youkai...'  
  
The whisper again. Part of him was annoyed at the intrusion; he was seeking the oblivion of darkness, the easement of new, disturbing realizations. Another piece of him felt the call tingle along his awareness, urging him to answer. The inu grumbled under it all, resenting the disturbance.  
  
'SesshouMaru...'  
  
The inu faintly growled, rousing his cognizance slightly even as his body curled in sleep. There was something there...close, familiar, desirable...  
  
:Female.:  
  
The inu within him brightened in recognition, the dull red glow of arousal hazing across his inner senses.  
  
'Female?' His awareness roused lazily, a picture of young Rin floating across his mind, touching the slight familiarity of that faint whisper, grasping it in claws to bring it closer to him so that he might know the summoner.  
  
'Miko...'  
  
With a sudden lurch of realization, the golden mist enveloped the red of the inu, and he opened his eyes to stare in shock at the warm body that lay next to him.  
  
"Kagome."  
  
The name was an intense whisper against her skin.  
  
The girl turned lazily in his loose embrace, and pressed herself along him, her legs tangling with his as her arms wrapped around his waist. Her head bowed into the curve of his broader chest, and she nestled sleepily against him.  
  
"SesshouMaru..." Her breath was a feather of heat against his chest, and he felt the desire firming him to need as his arms tightened around her. The inu, now always restless and seething just beneath the surface, growled within and flashed red streaks through his glowing eyes.  
  
:Mine.:  
  
"What are you..." His voice was a low growl.  
  
"Shhh..." A tiny finger came up to touch the firm line of his mouth, and the golden eyes narrowed on the girl, whose upturned face was a pale pearl in the midnight aura of her hair. The eyes were dark and compelling as the miko slithered up to press her soft lips against his.  
  
Hunger tingled along his soul, and his body clasped hers tightly to him, bending the soft figure beneath his stronger one as he turned them slightly, his mouth crushing hers in the sudden demand of passion's ardor.  
  
The inu within howled in delight at her uninhibited response, the soul claiming the right of affirmation.  
  
Her soft fingers slid along the arch of his spine to lightly clasp his shoulders as his mouth worked over hers, summoning answer as she tilted her head and parted her sweet lips. Swift as a striking falcon, his tongue surged into the wet heat of her mouth, and their tongues dueled the battle of inflamed desire.  
  
He left her panting and yearning beneath him, his lips brushing along the white column of her throat as she gasped and arched below him.  
  
'Kagome...'  
  
Her name was a hum of harmonic bonding along his lonely soul, and he almost crushed her small body in his strong arms as he sought to anchor her, forever, against him. His flesh burned with need, and red streaks crossed his vision as he growled over her.  
  
Something flared against his chest, and he pulled back a bit to see the glowering pink outline of his mark, the crescent moon branding a claim on his soul as his golden eyes arrowed on it. He removed his right arm from around her waist to lightly trace the mark with a claw tip, careful with her delicate skin.  
  
The inu youkai surged through his blood, calling out its claim in the beat of their hearts as the blood urge coursed through him and into her, willing the thrilling music of his senses to meld them together...  
  
:Mine. Mine. Mine.:  
  
He bent his head, and his tongue traced the path of his claws.  
  
"SesshouMaru...." Her gasp of his name as she writhed against him made his soul sing.  
  
"Mine..." He growled, and crushed her beneath him. Red streaks of hot desire fanned through the golden glow of his eyes, and his lips curled back, the gleam of white fangs making her shudder and cry out as the tips sought the edges of his mark, and bit lightly, drawing forth the claim of her blood to his.  
  
Power seemed to glow around her, and he almost flinched when he felt the first burning touch of it against his own aura. The inu in him snarled in reaction, ready for the sharp denial of that power to his demon blood, but the power softened, and he shuddered as it flowed into him, filling him as his mouth filled with the taste of her life-blood.  
  
Shaking against her, he withdrew before he took too much. She was so delicate and small, he did not want to hurt her...  
  
"You could never hurt me..." She whispered to him, and he closed his eyes, hugging her fiercely, showing her with his body what he could not yet say with words.  
  
Her fingers trailed up over his shoulders to frame the magenta- streaked cheeks, and she tugged lightly, directing his mouth to hers. Hardened for a moment, his body softened into hers as their lips fused, tongues melting together...  
  
.............................  
  
A/N: Edit out for R-Rated ff.net Version, Lemon can be read on A Single Spark for those old enough.  
  
.............................  
  
"Yours." She sobbed again as the pleasure washed through her, making her cry out with abandon as the white heat swamped over them both, their souls entwining as their bodies did likewise. The inu roared its conquest as his soul bound hers in the embrace of passion...  
  
...............................  
  
He snarled as he felt the unwelcome presence beside him, the soft, exploring hand on his thigh. Eyes opening, fangs flashing, he lurched off the bed, his single hand flashing out and curling around the throat of the intruder even as his tail whipped out to hold the smaller youkai's arms to its side as a whiff of a scream hissed out in reaction to the sudden capture.  
  
The female cowered, her mildly pink eyes whirling with the red streaks of alarm. Her scent was one of pure terror, and the Lord had to fight his inu blood, which snarled over the intrusion. Gold ice warred with red rage, and his eyes narrowed on the trembling female held against the far wall of his room by the hard circle of his clawed hand on her convulsing throat.  
  
"What are you doing?" He hissed, the growl of the inu heating his hard voice.  
  
The youkai gasped, her pearlescent skin draining to a grey-white blanch of fear. "M-My lord!" She gasped.  
  
"Akemi." He recognized her suddenly, as one whom he had used in the past, a maid most eager to satisfy his needs when no other opportunity presented itself. The youkai's silken yukata was pooled around her waist, and the points of her breasts were hardened with fright, not desire, as she shook in his tight grasp.  
  
He flung her to the side, the disgust overwhelming him. "Leave me." He commanded her, his voice harsh and full of ice. The youkai fell to her knees, bowing, before fleeing his presence in terror. His claws curled into a fist as stared at the rumpled silks on his bed.  
  
'Kagome...'  
  
Had she been real? Or was it only a dream?  
  
He felt the soft aura that had surrounded him, and nostrils flared as he detected a sharply feminine scent that had nothing to do with the youkai maid he had just dismissed from his chamber. The slight fragrance was of spring and flowers, ripening and growing, and the boiling reaction of his inu blood was oddly calmed by the faint trace of her scent.  
  
Closing golden eyes, he froze, the sweat running down him, making the long strands of his hair cling silkily to the heightened senses of his skin. Growling softly, he bowed his head, breathing in the faint scent with long, shuddering breaths.  
  
.....................................  
  
The girl moaned softly in her sleep, whimpering into the curve of her arm as her head twisted restlessly on the pillow and disturbed black tendrils brushed across her cheek and neck.  
  
Sleeping close to his adopted okaa-san, Shippo's green eyes popped open with the unsettled movement, and he blinked back a sleepy yawn as Kagome sighed, a lost sound as if something had abruptly left her.  
  
"Kagome?" He whispered softly, a paw tentatively stretched out toward her. A scent spiked across his nose, and he wrinkled it back with confusion. The reaching paw snapped back as he saw his Kagome turn over, the black curtain of her hair sweeping aside to reveal the bright glow of the half-circle mark on the crook of her neck and shoulder. The crescent shape blazed a brilliant pink, streaks of fuchsia and magenta swirling in the rosy glow of sacred powers and Jewel shards.  
  
'He calls her.'  
  
Shippo huddled into his little blanket, frightened at the thought. Why would he call her? Why should he call her? Hadn't he done enough? And she was answering him. Did she even know that she was?  
  
Could...could SHE be calling HIM?  
  
Biting his lip nervously with his fangs, Shippo wanted to hide his little head in his fluffy tail and deny it all. But THEY could not.  
  
The mating mark was true, and THEY would not be able to deny its powerful pull for long...  
  
'Oh, Okaa-san!' He wailed in his mind, tears spilling out of his tightly clenched eyes, wishing fervently that he had never, ever seen that betraying mark of the Western Lord claiming his mate. 'What will this mean to all of us?'  
  
........................................... A/N: This chapter is dedicated to Vyncent, who really spurred me on with ideas, and to all the other reviewers who requested more Sess/Kag. Thanks again to everybody who posts/emails, truly appreciated! Wicca, you gave me a case of the giggles, and Blacktigress, please email me at "Inufansha(at sign)aol.com", I had questions concerning your post on ff.net...(muse?). I believe aff.net is again up and running, but I have not been able to log in, so this new chapter will only be posted to S'Spark and lime-version on ff.net. Thank you w?w?su for your complimentary review, and Feminafures, I am so glad I can comfort you with my writing! =) Warms the soul! 


	37. Chapter ThirtySix: Return

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha....Rumiko Takahashi does. I do not own any money...the government does. I do own, however, a vast ocean of imagination, and somehow that makes up for not having either of the others...  
  
A/N: Sorry this took so long to post! The next chappie is already written, and being edited now. I want to thank everyone for all their lovely reviews, and I will take the time to write up replies, etc. on my next chappie. One quick note: thanks Vyncent and AmyF, Shiro Ryu and numerous other continued inspirations from other reviewers! All ideas/suggestions/laffs accepted and appreciated!  
  
Chapter Thirty-Six (Return)  
  
They burst forth somewhere above the ragged forests surrounding the small village that was so familiar to him, more familiar than his own family's cold rocky home in the Western Lands. InuYasha growled softly as the molten fire-laced shield abruptly died around him, and then pulled back in concern as the amazing neko under him seemed to falter.  
  
'Kirara is exhausted. That...whatever it was...took a lot out of her strength.'  
  
Miroku had jerked at the youkai's stumble, and tightened his arms around Sango, which made HER jerk and tighten her arms around Kohaku. Kirara rumbled soothingly beneath them, but InuYasha wasn't going to take any chances. The flaring black paws of the neko were already flickering and spurting, their usual strong flames creeping toward extinction as the youkai's power and strength waned.  
  
Only one thing to do...  
  
Without warning, the impetuous hanyou slid off the left side. Kirara tried to twist her body around to catch him, but InuYasha was already free and falling into the cloud-spotted blue sky of late mid-afternoon. Opening the expansive sleeves of his fire-rat haori, he widened his arms and used the soft upper winds of the air to cushion his descent to the earth far below.  
  
Kirara roared far above, and Miroku was yelling something at him. Sango was giving him a furious look, but he didn't care. They were only a few miles away from the village, and Kagome. He could travel much faster--- alone and unhindered---than the tired neko. Waving a pacifying fist at them in response, he spotted a handy tree, and braced for the impact and forward leap that would take him all the closer to Kagome.  
  
He was back up, the stronger winds of his passage pulling at the ends of his long silver-white hair and flapping the loose sleeves of his red robes in an accompaniment to his slight grunts of effort. He really needed to take a few days to rest...he was still recovering from all the injuries he had suffered, unknowing, from the blurred confusion of the night before-- -or was it a few nights? If Kirara had sped them forward through time, then he had just jumped three days ahead?  
  
Shaking his white head at the confusing muddle of it all---there was no time for stupid philosophical questions and baffling conundrums right now, damn it anyway---he pushed the thoughts away and concentrated on the one thing he could right now.  
  
'Kagome.'  
  
She was close. He could sense her, feel her...  
  
He sniffed tentatively, seeking the familiar comforting note of her own, uniquely feminine scent. The slightest hint of fresh springtime flowers, the faintest fragrance of pure dew-drops in the early morning rays of a gentle sun....  
  
'What the hell? Now I'm getting all soft and stupid!'  
  
Damn it, anyway.  
  
A distracting wind sprang up, pulling the first hint of her longed- for scent away from him. Growling, he increased his speed as the wind brought his hair forward to swirl in silver-edged tangles across his narrowed amber eyes. Spreading out his body, he let the interfering wind take him along with it, using the shift to increase his forward motion.  
  
'There.'  
  
There in that copse of surviving green trees, really close to the village. She was there, alone. Well, not really alone. The villagers were all around, and he could even see the red-and-white robed figure of old Kaede, huddling over the dirt-patch she called her herb garden, a villager leaning over the split-rails of the fencing, pausing on the winding path to speak a moment with the elderly miko.  
  
He didn't care about any of that. He just cared about Kagome.  
  
Twisting his body around, he sped like an arrow to fall right in the middle of those thickly-leaved green trees that hid any view of Kagome from him. Feet first, he plummeted to the earth, the self-exhilaration he always felt in using the physical strength of his demon-enhanced hanyou abilities smothered under the feeling of anticipation at finally beholding Kagome with his own eyes, seeing for himself that she was okay, unhurt, unharmed, whole...  
  
"Kagome!" He bellowed as his extended bare feet felt the first brush of the top-most foliage extended toward the sun-streaked sky as if to welcome his return with their embrace.  
  
He could hear a faint gasp below, and he scraped through the entangling branches to land not twenty paces away from where she stood, a gathering basket at her feet, the half-filled green contents spilling out over the edge to lie on the grassy verge as if she had dropped the whole basket in astonishment at suddenly seeing him.  
  
Even as his knees bowed, taking the gentled impact of his landing, and his clawed toes curled into the soft grass beneath them, and his silver- white haired settled into stillness down his red-clad back, his darkly golden eyes were drinking in the very sight of her.  
  
Beautiful. Wonderful. Whole. Alive.  
  
Huge brown eyes, widened in shock, were staring back at him, and her silky black hair was tied back in a loose tail with a white ribbon. A faint blush stained her cheeks, and her mouth was parted slightly in her surprise. She wore the white kimono and red hakama of a miko, and his throat tightened at the sight, his heart stirring as distant memories flowed over him.  
  
"Kagome." He said with his lips, even while his mind said the name of another.  
  
'Kikyo.'  
  
The slight color drained from her pale cheeks, and InuYasha jerked as he took in her ashen complexion and the flash of sad hurt in her eyes.  
  
His heart stopped.  
  
'No, damn it, no!'  
  
He had spoken the wrong name aloud...  
  
Soft lips thinning in heart-torn pain, she spun around, running on sandaled feet away from him, her midnight hair pulling free of the limp white ribbon to stream after her disappearing form among the entombing, shadow-ridden trees.  
  
"Kagome!" His heart called in bitter agony.  
  
He was after her, his first leap taking up the twenty paces that had seperated them in a single stride. She could never outrun him. He would catch her, hold her, explain all, force her to understand...  
  
She was crying, and the salty tang of her tears dominated his sensitive nose. Stretching out his claws, he had her as he swept past, hauling her close as her stumble into him forced him off balance. InuYasha twisted, so that it was he who landed in the tangling, thorny brush, and not her.  
  
Never her...  
  
"Kagome!" He cried out against her, as she fought him, even as they rolled into the brush and thrashed in the twisting brambles. She struggled for freedom, and he refused to let her go.  
  
'Never!'  
  
Pulling her close against him, he awkwardly regained his feet and dragged her after him as he fought free of the damn thorns, twigs snapping and leaves showering around them. His skin burned slightly from various scrapes and thorn-drawn scratches, but he didn't care. Winning free, he hauled her closer and hugged her tightly to him, his strong arms encircling her small back as his face buried in the inky tangles of her warm hair, hearing her racing heartbeat against him, seeking the familiar brush of her soothing scent among the salty touch of her tears.  
  
"Kagome." He whispered into her hair, holding her tight, her struggles falling into soft submission. "You're all right. You're okay. You're..."  
  
Something was wrong...  
  
He inhaled deeply, seeking the strengthening comfort of her soothingly feminine scent.  
  
Scent was so important to an inu...  
  
He froze, and pushed her way from him as dread recognition widened his staring amber eyes.  
  
Her thick black lashes sparkled with the shiny diamonds of tears, and she looked lost in misery, the hint of fear edging her deep brown eyes.  
  
"Kagome..."  
  
His claws traced the round edge of her cheek, brushing the black tendrils that clung to the damp pale skin. Something flashed, a bright, sudden blaze of magenta and fuchsia and palest rose. His amber eyes narrowed on it, and his claws fell to her thin shoulders, the strong hands tightening in reaction as fury washed through him, the red mists coming up to streak across his eyes.  
  
'NO!'  
  
The betraying crescent-moon mark blazed at him once again, driving the knife of dread recognition deeper into his thundering heart.  
  
He hadn't saved her...he hadn't saved her...  
  
He wanted to howl the pain of his betrayal to the uncaring heavens above. He glowed with fury and anger, the deep growl coming up between the clenched bite of his fangs as the red streaks swirled through his amber eyes.  
  
"WHY?"  
  
He roared that accusation at her, not knowing if it was for her or for himself.  
  
"InuYasha!" She cried at him, her voice edged with fear as her weak ningen hands came up to try and remove his from their tight grip of her shoulders.  
  
Her scent...her scent was deeper, muskier. No longer the pure hint of morning flowers, it was more vibrant, the scent of ripening earth and heavy blooms mixed among salty tears and heavy shame and fearful remorse and the hinted arrogance of his youkai brother...  
  
'SesshouMaru...'  
  
"NO!" He shouted in blind rage and anguished misery, thrusting her back and away from him as his claws suddenly released her small body and sent it falling toward the ground as he stepped back, away from her, furious denial filling his mind.  
  
'Not that...not that...not that...'  
  
"InuYasha!" She cried at him with longing even as she drew her knees up to fold them in front of her, her arms coming to encircle them protectively as she huddled, the tears streaming down her white cheeks.  
  
InuYasha couldn't stand to look at her. He whirled away, a curled fist swinging up to pound the nearest tree bole in frustrated anger and pain.  
  
"He CLAIMED you!" He snarled at the tree, fist striking again and dislodging a small storm of flurrying leaves at the mighty oak shook under the impact of his rage.  
  
'I failed you...'  
  
There was no reply to his bitter accusation, but he could sense an increase in her silent tears. The rage and pain frothed inside of him, twisting him inside out until he had to twist around and face her, his amber eyes red-streaked, revealing the fury and anguish that warred within.  
  
"WHY?" He roared, fangs flashing, his heart cracking.  
  
'I did not protect you...'  
  
She flinched, ducking her head between her encircling arms, the midnight waves of her hair hiding her pale face from him.  
  
"Why did you LET him?" He cried, speaking the wrong thoughts, the wrong words...again.  
  
'Why did I not save you?'  
  
"I..." The whisper was full of desolation, and he wanted to take her in his arms again, to shield her and protect her from it....but how could he? He had already proven how worthless he was, how weak and stupid and pathetic he really was. He was only a hanyou...half of what his damn youkai brother was. And the half he was, was nothing.  
  
He had failed her, failed to protect her, as he had failed to protect Kikyo...  
  
The red streaks broadened as the inu in him stirred, and he had to clench his claws into fists as he shouted the ultimate betrayal of the inu to one he had seen as his possible mate.  
  
"YOU CARRY HIS SEED!"  
  
The roar left him panting, trying to control the snarling fury that accompanied it. He stared with betrayed fury as the girl lifted her head up, her brown eyes wide with pain and sorrow, but no surprise.  
  
'She knew!'  
  
"InuYasha..." Her whisper of his name was hoarse and lingering between them.  
  
The inu snarled, and his eyes flashed red blood before he struggled with himself, dampening down the youkai rage that was still so new to him. His damn brother would never have let the inu rage take hold of him, would never have spat damning accusations at the woman he loved...it just emphasized to him once more his own weakened worthlessness as a half-breed bastard...  
  
"I..." He said helplessly, the amber eyes turning to gold as he shook in reaction to the inner battle that surged through him, the inu and the human fighting for control.  
  
She was standing, stepping forward on shaking legs, her small hands held up in pleading as the tears ran unchecked down her beautiful face. She looked so much like his old love in her white and red robes that he felt as if he was transported back in time...  
  
'I failed her, too!'  
  
"Kikyo..." He said again, his mind overcome with the double failure of his diluted blood.  
  
Kagome's eyes darkened at the sound of the dead miko's name, and he flinched at the sudden fury that sent the color flushing to her pale, tear- stained cheeks.  
  
"You never loved me! You only ever loved her!"  
  
'No, no, no! Kagome!'  
  
Kikyo...  
  
"And you dare..." Her small hands were fisted at her sides, her head bowed as the anger melted through her.  
  
The rage of him, the inu, was dying away as fresh sorrow and pain swamped through him.  
  
'Oh, Kagome. How I have failed you!'  
  
Kikyo...  
  
Dark eyes flashed, and he almost welcomed her shout of outrage.  
  
"OSUWARI!"  
  
He welcomed the abrupt pull from around his neck, welcomed the sudden impact with the moist, hard earth as his body hit it with the power of the prayer-beads' command. Her shout rang through his sensitive, flattened ears as his body carved a deep hole in the ground with the sheer intensity of her anger.  
  
Perhaps...perhaps now she could forgive him...  
  
Although he would probably never forgive himself...  
  
His head rang from the abrupt collision with the ground, and white lights flashed behind his eyes as he waited for the pain to recede enough for him to spit the dirt out of his mouth and crack his closed eyes open, to see if she still stood furiously above him...  
  
But she wasn't.  
  
Frightened, he jumped up, wincing as the spasming muscles of his back and legs firmed under him as his body demanded the strength of his limbs to hold him up. The damn hole was damn deep, and he made a crouching leap up out of the churned earth.  
  
'Kagome!'  
  
He found her, hunched over and barfing in the bushes.  
  
"Kagome?"  
  
Her body heaved and shuddered, and she spat the last of her lunch out of her mouth as the tears swam over her cheeks. She reeled away, shaking her head, a hand curling over her mouth as she stumbled away from him, refusing to look at him, not wanting him to see her shame.  
  
"Kagome..." He whispered, stepping forward, claws outstretched in anguished concern, an overwhelming sense of failure pulling at his self- confidence.  
  
She whirled, her brown eyes darkening to almost black, her sharp words the same words hurtled at him by Sango less than a day (in his time- churned viewpoint) before...  
  
"STAY AWAY FROM ME!"  
  
His hand fell to his side, as her pained cry froze him in mid-stride. The girl pivoted back around, and sped away from him, her running form melting into the concealing shadows of the entangling trees as his heart fell, cracked and bleeding, to the grass-torn floor at his feet.  
  
"Kagome." Amber eyes sad, shoulders drawn in dejection, he watched her leave and did nothing to stop her.  
  
What could he do?  
  
He had failed her, just like Kikyo.  
  
No wonder they both hated him.  
  
'I've lost you both...'  
  
...............................  
  
They made their way down the dusty path, topping the last hill, the water-spotted rice paddies of the small village revealed as they climbed the crest and descended over the edge. Trees waved gently in the wind that blew airy kisses and flirted around them. Miroku was holding the unaccustomed fluffy form of a smaller Kirara, the neko too exhausted to do more than flick her tails in annoyance at him and yawn widely while blinking softly glowing red eyes.  
  
Sango had refused to give up the boy cradled in her arms, and Miroku hadn't wasted time with argument. Once the taijiya had her mind made up on something, nothing short of an earthquake was going to shake her out of it.  
  
Moments after InuYasha had slid off of Kirara's back, Sango had suggested they land also, as Kirara really was straining under their weight. The exhausted neko had growled a denial, but Sango's voice had been sharp with concern over her youkai companion, and she ordered Kirara down. The cat had made a less-than-graceful landing, and Miroku had felt a stab of worry. It had been he, after all, who had asked the neko to make such a leap ahead through both time and space. But they---he and Kirara---had just left the village the day before, when the neko youkai had stunned him into amazed silence as the flaring flames of her paws had risen to engulf him and spewed them toward where---and WHEN---the cat knew her mistress needed her, the bloodied remains of the battlefield in the Taiyoukai's forests.  
  
Miroku watched the braced form of the demon slayer as she clutched her dead brother to her, and he closed his eyes for a moment as his hand tightened on his staff, the rings jangling in protest. He had remarked idly as they walked that Kagome and InuYasha would probably benefit from a few moments alone, and really, he needed to talk to Sango alone as well...  
  
Sango had made no reply, had just turned down the path and started walking, her brown eyes blank and emotionless as her hands white-knuckled over the wrapped boy in her arms.  
  
They walked in silence, the neko nestled in his bead-wrapped right arm yawning once more.  
  
"Er, Sango?" Miroku began nervously.  
  
The taijiya paused, her head tilted slightly back as she waited patiently for him to step up beside her. She said nothing, simply waiting.  
  
'She has changed so much...'  
  
"Um, there are some things I should let you know about. Some, uh, things have happened..." Miroku began tentatively.  
  
She nodded once, and resumed walking.  
  
"Uh..." The houshi simply didn't know where to begin. With Kagome? Or with Ko---  
  
"Miroku!"  
  
There was a flash of red and white from the nearby trees, and Kirara hissed in annoyance as she jumped out of his cradling arm when the slight figure of Koharu was tumbling against him, her arms wrapping around his waist, her soft lips whispering across his cheek and mouth as he blinked blue eyes in sudden surprise, a chagrined flush creeping up his face.  
  
"Um..."  
  
"Miroku! I am so glad you are back! I have missed you, houshi-sama!" The freckles scattered across Koharu's nose were dancing as much as her delighted brown eyes upon seeing him.  
  
"Er..."  
  
His dark blue eyes searched for Sango, and he gave her a weak grin. The taijiya was staring at them, her beautiful face closed and expressionless. Kirara's twin tails twitched as she huffed at the embarrassed monk, before the neko turned and rubbed Sango's leg in comfort, mewing her concern.  
  
Sango ignored the little youkai kitten.  
  
She nodded once toward Koharu as the girl suddenly realized the slayer was standing there, a long bundle wrapped in her braced arms. Koharu blushed slightly, but her arms stayed tight around Miroku's waist, and she giggled nervously.  
  
'Oh, that giggle...'  
  
Sango simply turned her back, and continued walking, her back straight and her figure tall and proud, feelings sealed, as cold and dead as one of the steeled weapons she carried at her side. 


	38. Chapter ThirtySeven: Taunt

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
A/N: Thanks for all the reviews and helpful suggestions! Continued thanks to Vyncent, Amy F., Jazngurl, Wicca, and all the other inspiring reviews and ideas. Hope you like the bit of twist off of the anime... O.O  
  
WARNING: DARK IMAGERY/LANGUAGE IN THIS CHAPTER. (Word Edit on ff.net)  
  
Chapter Thirty-Seven (Taunt)  
  
Her whole body was one weary ache of exhaustion, and still they pressed on. She could tell that the wolves around them were slowing, their panting tongues hanging out and their pace falling behind. Their two-legged youkai brethren weren't doing much better. Most of them were stumbling along, and Ginta, who was closest to her and slightly behind, was almost asleep on his feet. He kept jerking his black-touched grey head up, as if he was awakening suddenly from a mind-numbing dream, and then his head would sag back down to stare resignedly at his trudging feet.  
  
Kagura refused to voice her own fatigue. She was still feeling some of the effects of Hideki's powerful "numbing juice" and her head felt as if it was stuffed with cotton from ear to ear. Normally sharp with her wits, she didn't like this dull feeling, and was now too tired to care.  
  
'That damn wolf will drive us on until we fall down dead.' She directed that bitter thought toward Koga, who she could not see. The stupid mongrel had barreled far ahead of the faltering pack, his Jewel-enhanced legs bursting with speed...  
  
Too bad the Jewel shards didn't enhance his brain...  
  
Kagura growled softly, her red eyes flashing for a bit as her aching shoulders twitched. She would show the damn wolf that she could keep up with him.  
  
'Stupid dog.'  
  
It was the worst insult she could think of, calling that mangy slave- driver a dog. Wolves had such testy tempers, and such empty vanity. They prided themselves on being more than just dogs, even though inu youkai were one of the first in power and strength.  
  
Wolfish strength relied more on their numbers, while inu strength rested more on the individual...  
  
She was too tired to think about all that nonsense right now.  
  
She blinked in numbed surprise as an arrow sped out of the creeping shadows of the trees.  
  
'What?'  
  
Eyes widening, she flinched away as a wolf yelped piteously behind her.  
  
A mingled roar rose from the forest on either side of them, and Kagura was nearly flattened into the ground as a wolf-brother pushed her under him, protecting her from the sudden hail of arrows that followed the first one's flight. Growls and snarls erupted from the startled, defensive wolf pack, and her sensitive ears picked up faint shouts coming out of the dull clamor as spear shaft and katana rang against shield and sword in a crazy din of screams and yowling accusations that filled the dust-swirled air around her.  
  
"Get them! Stinking wolves!"  
  
"Die, beast! Die like the animals you are!"  
  
"Ningen! Show yourself, coward!"  
  
"You killed my family! Revenge for---"  
  
"Get the (witch)! She could be breeding more of them!"  
  
"She'll die like my wife died, you stinking wolves that killed her!"  
  
"Die, bandit! Traitor!"  
  
"Youkai spawn!"  
  
"Ningen trash!"  
  
Cries and screams, yips and yowls mixed in all around her, and she struggled to get out from beneath the heavy body of the stinking ookami youkai that covered her.  
  
"Get off of me, cur!" She hissed into a twitching ear.  
  
A dirt-streaked grey head turned to her, and Ginta's wide eyes were blinking the swirling dust of battle away as he blushed at their close contact. "S'Sorry, m'lady!" He said with a weary slur to his words. "Had to cover ya." His eyes closed as his face drained of color. Kagura's nostrils widened as she traced the sharply metallic scent of fresh blood, much too close for comfort.  
  
Ginta was hurt...  
  
She snarled, something snapping inside of her. The stupid wolf! He had thrown himself on top of her, protecting her from the arrows that had been sent her way by stinking ningen bandits who dared to attack HER.  
  
Eyes glowing with the blood glint of dark rubies, she pushed Ginta off of her with sudden strength, turning him carefully so that she could study the arrow---no, arrows---that pierced his shoulder and leg. His spear was cracked in half beside him, and two wolves, their whining confusion stilled into tell-tale silence, lay sprawled and bloody not far away.  
  
A slight scuff above had her rolling away at the last moment as a sword came crashing down in the dirt where she had lain beside Ginta a moment before.  
  
"Die, youkai (witch)!" The ningen snarled, his brown eyes wide with the battle-fever that gripped him. The sword rose again, and Kagura jumped to her feet, her eyes glowing darker with anger as her claws extended into sharp daggers.  
  
Gone were her fan and her power over the winds, but still she was not a helpless human female, weak of claw and fang. She was youkai, and she would see him die under the rage of her blood.  
  
She snarled, and leapt at him, claws reaching out and scraping across one unprotected cheek from forehead to chin. The man cried out in pain, dropping his sword to clutch at his ravaged face, the blood streaming down between his dirty fingers.  
  
That was foolish.  
  
She had him, her teeth sinking into the jugular as her claws trapped him beneath her. His dying screams brought the attentions of his nearest companions, and she jumped away from him, spitting out the nasty taste of his dirty ningen blood as she crouched beside the fallen Ginta.  
  
"Damn wolf (witch)! You'll die for killing my brother!" One of the disgusting ningen screamed at her, his filthy, blood-streaked visage no different from any of the other ragged men with him. But the bandits were bent on vengeance, better rested, and far out-numbered the exhausted wolf pack. She could hear the battle raging on around her, but none were close enough to help, and she snarled her defiance as the six men who came to leer and shout back at her.  
  
"Stupid slut! She could be the alpha mate, and could be carrying more of their filthy breed!" Another man spat at her, his blood-covered sword raised.  
  
Rubies glowed and her lip curled in disdain. Stupid ningen trash, they would die for their impudence!  
  
Ginta groaned and twitched beside her, and she cursed the Fates that would have him call attention to himself just then.  
  
"Heh-heh!" One of the bandits grinned, showing blackened teeth. "Your arrows didn't kill him, Goro! Well, I can finish the job for you!" He raised his own bloodied katana.  
  
Kagura snarled, making them all laugh, secure in the knowledge of their numbers and her lack of them. They still kept their distance, wary of her claws and fangs, but the one called Goro was raising his bow with a sneer, notching an arrow to the string and pointing it at Ginta's stirring frame.  
  
"Lady..." Ginta whispered faintly, his voice hoarse with worry. "Be safe..." He closed his eyes as Kagura stiffened at the dirty trash's taunts.  
  
"Lady! Hah!"  
  
"See? She is the wolf (witch)! He called to her!"  
  
"He protected her, the stupid ookami!"  
  
"Goro, hurry up and finish him, and then we can finish HER!"  
  
The ningen pulled back his arrow, his beady little eyes narrowing over a mocking smirk. "Damn wolf will die for sure now!"  
  
"Even you, Goro, can't miss at that distance!" One of the other men made a rude joke, and the others guffawed. The din of battle arose behind them, but seemed cut off and muted to a dull hum in the background as Kagura's world narrowed into these six taunting men and their crude delight at their quarry's apparent helplessness.  
  
'I am YOUKAI!' She screamed in her mind as her eyes glowed with an inner scarlet fire, making the men flinch back in fear.  
  
"Goro! Shoot her! That youkai (witch) is up to something!"  
  
The barbed arrow swung two inches to the right, to point itself right at her breast, and she snarled her defiance, the blood lust freed as her soul called out to the one thing that had always protected her, shielded her, formed her, made her...  
  
'Wind!' Her mind screamed. 'I am the WIND!'  
  
And abruptly it was there...filling her soul with the rage of its forceful blast, burning inside of her body as her heart cried with joy at the sudden FILLING of it!  
  
"WIND!" She screamed as both arms came up, hands extended and flattened to face the shouting trash who would dare to attack her and her brother youkai.  
  
..............................  
  
Suyo bowed to the Lord, his lightly pink eyes lowered. He felt the Taiyoukai's mild wave of curt acknowledgement, and fell to his knees on the stone floor of the Lord's sitting room.  
  
His movement caught the inu Lord's immediate attention, and the spider youkai could feel the coldly golden eyes boring into him.  
  
"What is this?" There was a faint, growling echo to the impatient voice that had never been there before. Something had changed the Lord, and it made the servant nervous, though none of his thoughts showed in his carefully controlled expression. The Taiyoukai did not tolerate emotional displays---and he did not tolerate delay.  
  
"Forgive me, my lord." Suyo pressed his hands---all four of them--- open-palmed to the floor, his dove-grey forehead lightly touching the stones in a sign of supplication.  
  
The Taiyoukai growled.  
  
Suyo forgot himself, and lifted his head in astonishment at the startling sound, noting the slightly red tinge to the golden glare.  
  
The Lord's emotions were so close to the surface, he could almost sense them...  
  
Hurriedly, he pressed his forehead once more to the floor, waiting the demonic wrath that would have been unleashed had any other Lord stood above him.  
  
But the wrath did not come.  
  
Instead, the detached voice of tight control was there. "Sit up."  
  
Hastily, the oni youkai obeyed, sitting back on his heels, his eyes still downcast. He had not been given permission to raise them.  
  
"Tell me what it is that I must forgive you for." The echo was back, under-lying the chilling tone, but it was fainter than before. Suyo admired the Taiyoukai's control even as he bowed his head once more.  
  
"It was I, my lord, who sent the maid to your chamber. The one who so displeased you." He spared no words, admitting his folly. The female had been hysterical, her slow wits overcome by the terror of enraging her inu Lord.  
  
The growl was back, and Suyo checked the reflexive flinch that would have ignited the demon's rage with untimely movement.  
  
He waited with bent head for a long time, sensing that the Taiyoukai was wrestling with something unseen.  
  
"I did not request companionship."  
  
Suyo bowed, forehead touching the stones again. "I acted on my own, my lord. Forgive this one's impetuous decision. I knew that you had not been with such companionship for some time, and took it upon myself to send Akemi to your rooms."  
  
The Lord contemplated his servant for a long time. Suyo awaited his punishment with unending patience. He had been trained well.  
  
"I will forgive it, this once."  
  
'What?' Suyo raised his head again in disbelief, unable to hide the brief flash of surprise in his eyes. Fingers curled momentarily, before he deliberately loosened the taut muscles.  
  
Any other Lord would have had him beheaded.  
  
Red flashed through the glowing eyes, and Suyo did flinch this time, as the Lord allowed the merest hint of his raging inu nature surface. "Never again. Understood?"  
  
"Yes, my lord." Suyo pressed his head once more to the cool stones.  
  
Another silent regard, and then the Lord said abruptly, "Stand."  
  
The oni youkai hastened to obey, scrambling to his feet and poised at attention. The matter had been brought, forgiven, and dismissed. It would not be mentioned again---as he was not foolish enough to ever generate a similar situation that would cause the Lord's just wrath to fall upon his head.  
  
SesshouMaru turned his back, his gaze intent on something invisible to the waiting servant. The Taiyoukai appeared withdrawn and introspective, and Suyo respected the Lord's silence.  
  
Abruptly, SesshouMaru turned back around, as if coming to a decision. "I will be away for an unknown length of time. I seek knowledge, and I must visit an old friend of my father's, Beksenou. I know not whether I will return after that. I am leaving you in nominal charge. I trust you will not do anything that would displease me in my absence."  
  
The faint sarcasm of that remark actually reassured Suyo more than anything else. The Taiyoukai was not so changed as to forget the subtleties.  
  
"As you will, my lord." Suyo bowed, stiff with formality.  
  
"I have assigned Jaken the task of seeing to Rin. She is his responsibility, but I also demand that you see to her comforts. She will not be happy that I am not taking her on this journey."  
  
"Of course, my lord." Slight amusement flashed through the pale eyes, as the oni assimilated that particular bit of news. The impish First Advisor would not at best be pleased by this sudden demotion of his duties. But, perhaps, it was not a demotion. The little ningen girl was held high in the Lord's regard, and her safety and comfort were one thing he was adamant upon. Possibly the Taiyoukai was giving the imp more credit than was his due, and trusting the ingratiating advisor with something that had become precious to him.  
  
Jaken, of course, would not recognize that honor.  
  
"I will depart within the hour. You are dismissed." The Taiyoukai turned away from his servant, and Suyo's bow was ignored. On silent feet, he departed the Lord's rooms, his active mind circling with renewed questions.  
  
..................................  
  
Surveying the destruction around him, the hanyou chuckled. It was a dark, velvety chuckle, the pure delight in others' pain holding the hint of madness.  
  
That madness swirled around him, in him, through him...the insidious purple-edged blackness eating away at his very soul...  
  
Abruptly, the laughter was cut off.  
  
The madness would not claim him now.  
  
Not ever.  
  
Striding over to the decapitated head of the mind-reading demon once called Goshinki, and now called nothing but (dark chuckle) carrion-bait, a hand withdrew from the concealing white fur of the baboon, and he traced the line of the staring red eyes, now vacant of any sign of life or recognition.  
  
'Goshinki...'  
  
The call was dark, as insidious as the madness...  
  
Death did have a name.  
  
One hand smoothed over the cold face, petting it like the finest of silks, the other curved around the fuchsia-streaked bauble he held tightly in his claws.  
  
'Goshinki...'  
  
A faint spark flashed through the dull, red eyes.  
  
'Awaken, my son...'  
  
He took a twisted pleasure in that. His son...  
  
He clasped the Jewel tighter, willing it to help him call the spirit back into the body...what was left of the body...  
  
Another flash, and he whipped his hand back as razor-sharp teeth snapped at him.  
  
"Goshinki."  
  
"Naraku." The voice was wispy, the chilling ice of the dead reborn. Teeth gleamed---the prize, the prize he sought. Goshinki's teeth had bitten through the Tetsusaiga, breaking it.  
  
What a fine sword they would make.  
  
His incarnation snarled, a faint breath of a snarl. The demon was pathetic.  
  
"You will not suffer long, my son." The dark grin was hidden behind the curling mockery of the baboon's mask. Blue-lined red eyes narrowed and bled with their own fire. The Shikon no Tama glowed with a beautifully malevolent light, and his other hand passed over the demon's living skull. "Sleep, my son..."  
  
The cruel smile was hidden behind the taunting mask.  
  
'For now.'  
  
The incarnation's eyes closed, slowly, as he fought the will of his Master, his maker.  
  
Once the angry youkai was subdued into unconscious sleep, Naraku summoned the poisonous miasma, purple and black vapor swirling like the madness that echoed, waiting, in his mind, and surrounded them both in their protective embrace.  
  
"Come, my son." He chuckled again. "We must go see a sword-smith named Kaijinbo." 


	39. Chapter ThirtyEight: Distracted

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
A/N: Sorry about the long wait for an update. Busy, busy. I made up for it with two new chapters. :D Thank you for all the reviews/ideas/inspirations. There may be another delay (dodges bullets) as I have family and weddings heading in next week, but I promise to be more timely after that! Take care and thanks again!  
  
Chapter Thirty-Eight (Distracted)  
  
'It was as I feared, then.'  
  
Kaede regarded the greenery in the basket with a troubled eye, her hands busy separating Kagome's gathered herbs into distinct piles of prospective use. Kagome was inside the little hut, her stormy arrival dismissing any questions that the old miko might have addressed her with.  
  
The girl needed to be alone for a time, and Kaede had stepped outside into the waning sun to sort her herbs and give the poor child some peace.  
  
She had not known what to expect with the hanyou's return, and now, it seemed, her quiet fears had been awakened, although the unease did not show in the placid lines of her weathered face. There was no sign of InuYasha, and she was distracted from her dark thoughts by the new worries that claimed her.  
  
The small group of friends had finally been reunited, but now there were unforeseen complications that could split them all asunder and separate them forever...  
  
.....................  
  
He sat in a tree, alone and by himself, his mind crowded with dark thoughts. The sky seemed to darken above him, as if his own thoughts were being manifested in the roiling clouds above.  
  
He ignored the turmoil above, his own, inner turmoil distracting him...  
  
And almost fell out of the tree as lightening struck the ground near it. Blinking back the sudden white flash that had burned across his eyes, his hand automatically reached for the hilt of the Tetsusaiga, before the sudden realization that the blade was now useless had him freeze in mid- motion as the black clouds faded and the deepening blue of sunset approaching peeped out once more.  
  
"Muerrr."  
  
InuYasha blinked, thinking the bright light had played tricks with his vision.  
  
The bull youkai mooed once more, its three eyes watching him placidly as the stringy end of its tail swapped lazily at an annoying fly.  
  
"Lord InuYasha!"  
  
'Huh?'  
  
With an incredible leap, the hanyou jumped from off the tree branch to land in a crouch beside the placid bull. Amber eyes narrowed as the gruffly glad cry came again from somewhere on the bull youkai's nose, somewhere between the large nostrils and the blinking eyes.  
  
"Lord InuYasha!"  
  
He felt a sudden sting on the end of his nose, and reflexively slapped the annoyance away. Scowling, he glared at the flattened form of his some-time advisor, Myouga.  
  
Myouga let out a beleaguered sigh, before his bewhiskered cheeks puffed out a bit, followed by the rest of him as the flea youkai recovered from compression.  
  
"Where the hell have you been?" InuYasha demanded in a growl.  
  
"Master! I was but awaiting you at Totosai's caverns!" Myouga jumped up and down with the urgency of his plea for understanding.  
  
"Awaiting me?" InuYasha blinked.  
  
"Yes, my lord! You must hurry! I have borrowed MoMo the bull from Totosai! Only he can fix the Tetsusaiga!" Myouga jumped up and down with the urgency of his plea.  
  
"How did you---"  
  
"That doesn't matter right now, my lord! What matters is that you must go and have the sword repaired, and only Totosai can do it!"  
  
A spurt of elation shot through the darkened clouds of his mind. Tetsusaiga could be fixed! Tetsusaiga could be made whole!  
  
"What---"  
  
"Enough questions, Master! You must hurry!"  
  
Amber eyes narrowed on the incorrigible flea. "Just why are you so damn pushy about me going!"  
  
A small palm slapped the balding forehead, and Myouga achieved a good volume with his rather meager size in emitting the long-suffering sigh that accompanied it. The hanyou let out a warning growl, his patience---never strong---at an end.  
  
"Myouga..."  
  
The flea youkai dropped the dramatics, and took up emphatics. "My lord! The Tetsusaiga MUST be repaired! You MUST go! Just trust me, Master!"  
  
'Just trust me...'  
  
Trust was such a hard thing, and InuYasha had little of it when it came to his cowardly companion. Still...  
  
Rolling amber eyes, he tilted his hand, so that the flea fell down with a squeaky protest to disappear among the tall grass at his feet. InuYasha ignored the muffled complaint, and stalked over to the brown bull, who had some of that long grass poking out of the side of its mouth.  
  
"C'mon, MoMo." InuYasha said with a heavy sigh, hopping to the youkai's broad back. He sat cross-legged, his hands pulling the Tetsusaiga free to cradle in his lap as he settled down into stiff-back resignation.  
  
"Muerrr."  
  
With that long agreement, the bull youkai turned and shuffled off, a disgruntled flea left behind them sulking to himself.  
  
"Nobody ever gives me the respect I'm due..."  
  
.........................  
  
Her form glowed with a fiercely white light, and her senses burned as her body became the channel for the raging gusts that raced along her blood and sought freedom, the tornado in her soul twisting into the unrestrained void of her mind as it blanked out protectively under the onslaught of the roaring fury of the winds. Her hands spread further, and she released them, her body a mere vessel for the unfocused raw force that she had called down from the upper reaches of the sky.  
  
'WIND!'  
  
She knew nothing, saw nothing, felt nothing as the Winds tore through the clearing, where youkai battled ningen, ookami struggled against bandit. The Wind knew nothing of friend or foe, did not care, but there was something of her that soared with it, that tempered it so that it might bruise and send companion soaring away with its push, but it would not send them forcefully against the hard ground or into the unmovable impact of rock or tree. The pitifully weak human bodies, on the other hand, were sent crumpling under the sheer might of that raging Wind.  
  
Screams and sobs were abruptly silenced under the gusting force, and the howls of surprised wolf brothers filled the skies as they were sent up and away to fall, not too gently, for her control was slight, and the Winds could care less, into tree and brush. The Winds flared once more, seeking a renewal of focus, howling their own descant to the cries of the wolves.  
  
Ears rung at the combined sound as a far-off ookami youkai stilled into sudden silence, his own winds, churned up by his running feet, dying around him. The howl of Wind and wolf made his mind curl with the one fear that could truly touch him...loss of his brothers, death of his clan, danger to his pack. Roaring in fury, he spun in mid-air and raced back toward the pack, his Jewel-studded legs whipping up their own roaring tornado of wind from the speed of his passage.  
  
The smaller tornado came on to meet the larger, and the youkai winds, aspects of their aura of power, seemed to touch and meet, combining for a moment, struggling for control and dominance before swirling together. Koga could feel his own winds sliding through the stronger Winds of the witch's calling. With a roar, not knowing if it was SHE who was attacking his pack and fearing it with all of his being, he pushed through her Winds and sought to control the focus of that raw power.  
  
Kagura felt something piercing through her winds, and she clung to it joyfully. The raging Winds had slipped out of her weak grasp of control, so that she did not know how to silence what she had called and unleashed so rashly. 'Come!' She commanded, pulling on those winds, freeing her own so that they could die under the knitting force of that slighter whirlwind. The youkai aura was powerful and strong, definitely male, and she flinched at the faint familiarity of it.  
  
'CONCENTRATE!' She roared in her mind, calling forth the last bits of her will to tame the now raging Winds that surrounded her, sapping the strength of her soul, seeking to combine them together, forever. She fought the draw of the Winds that she had longed for, fought for each breath in the burning lungs of her power-swallowed body.  
  
"COME!" She screamed at the Other, and suddenly He was there, inside of the whirlwind, carrying it outward away from her and the clearing as His own demonic winds stretched out, shielding them all from the raging mindless Winds that had saved her, and now sought to consume her...  
  
Both winds flared out, seeking dominance, and the inner winds, His winds that she supported and controlled, brightened as the fury raced through her, her body taking the punishment of the outer Winds' uncontrolled rage that she would dare to silence them, once called. For a moment, all was white and yellow and glowing fire along her senses, and then, abruptly, there was silence, as both winds died, their battle done.  
  
Kagura felt her body falling to the earth, and she whimpered softly as the ground touched her burning, glowing skin. The white radiance flared along her splayed limbs once, and then died, leaving her cold and shaking on the ground in heaving fear at what she had loosed, what she had called and what nearly had swallowed her whole into its own force...  
  
'Ginta...Ginta and the others...'  
  
"Ginta..." She croaked, her fingers flexing on the dirt as she turned her head.  
  
Her mind blanked as she saw that Other, the one who's winds had saved her from her own. A weakly grateful smile flashed over her stiff lips, before recognition had her eyes widen in denial and a spasm of pain ripped through her burned, naked body. "Koga..."  
  
The blue eyes were icy points of glowering rage, the red streaks fading as he knelt beside Ginta, whose arrows had been ripped out by the Wind, his prone body somewhat protected by her own instinct for personal survival. The grey-haired wolf brother groaned softly.  
  
"Lady..."  
  
"He is Alive!" She whispered that hoarse cry at the furious pack leader. She would not let him deal a mercy blow to end the injured youkai's suffering.  
  
'He will survive...' The fierce light in her rubied eyes dulled as the thought circled through her mind, and she fell into the darkness, seeking escape from the pain of her burnt body. Her lips formed the silent thought into a last, faint whisper as the healing darkness took her once more...  
  
......................  
  
"InuYasha has what?" Kagome startled them all by parting the bamboo curtain that covered the hut's open doorway.  
  
"M'lady!" A small speck bounced up and down on Miroku's cloth-covered knee. The houshi sat cross-legged on the grass below Lady Kaede, who was seated on the steps. The old priestess's back was toward the hut, but she turned her head slightly at Kagome's sudden appearance.  
  
Kagome stepped out, her brown eyes wide. "Myouga? Where have you been?"  
  
"I---"  
  
"He was at Totosai's." Miroku gave the flea youkai a dark blue glance.  
  
"Figures."  
  
"Hey!"  
  
Kagome eased herself beside Kaede on the steps, and shook her black head at the protesting youkai.  
  
Kaede patted the girl's knee in some concern, her single eye dark with sympathy and comfort in the last red-golden rays of the setting sun. Kagome tensed for a moment, closing her eyes, before she deliberately made herself relax.  
  
Miroku eyed her with some concern. "Are you all right, Kagome?" His voice was soft and warm with concern as only his could be.  
  
"No."  
  
'Shards! I said that out loud!'  
  
Plastering a bright smile on her face and crinkling her eyes in a bad attempt at careless cheerfulness, Kagome said buoyantly, "Why, yes! Yes I am!"  
  
"Uh..." Miroku was taken aback at the almost-forceful quality to Kagome's happy denial.  
  
"Enough questions, Miroku. Kagome is in a delicate condition." Kaede admonished softly, patting Kagome's knee again.  
  
"Delicate?" Dark brows shot up, and the monk's dusky blue eyes arrowed on the girl. Kagome sat there stunned, a vacant, half-forgotten smile still stiffly curving her soft mouth.  
  
'Does she have to be so BLUNT?'  
  
"Ahh." Myouga let out a tell-tale sigh of complete understanding.  
  
'Does EVERYBODY know?'  
  
The flea youkai offered a deep bow, almost unseen against Miroku's shadowed robes. "May I be the first to offer my congratula---"  
  
"Ahem." Kaede politely coughed as Kagome turned really pale, the stupid smile finally disappearing.  
  
Miroku raised a dark brow, before his free hand casually came up to kick the flea youkai off of his knee with a well-directed flick of his index finger. Myouga sailed through the air in a wide arc, a startled yelp of protest abruptly cut off as he landed snoot-first in the dusty pathway that led up to the hut.  
  
"Kagome!" A little orange fireball spun through the air, distracting them all. Kagome opened her arms just in time, as Shippo landed in her lap and snuggled against her. "I'm back, Kagome! I've missed you, oh so much! But I had fun, showing Koharu where the best leaves are...the ones you should me that time. Remember, Kagome? That time when you and InuYasha were fighting, and..."  
  
A little paw came up to his mouth, and green eyes blinked at Kagome's sudden stillness. "Oops." Instantly contrite, the kitsune hugged her tightly, begging for forgiveness. "I'm sorry, Kagome! I didn't mean to---"  
  
Putting her own raw feelings aside, Kagome cuddled the little fox cub to her, fingers softly stroking the rusty hair. "It's okay, Shippo. Don't worry about it."  
  
"Where is InuYasha, Kagome?" Shippo asked, green eyes slitted with pleasure as her fingers continued to pet him.  
  
There was a dusty cough below them, where Myouga was brushing the dirt off of his clothes. "The Lord InuYasha has gone to see Totosai, to get the Tetsusaiga repaired."  
  
'So he has gone.'  
  
Part of her was sad by that fact, another could only feel relief. She was so angry at him, and she didn't want to see him right now. She was still too raw over his betrayal.  
  
'How could he think of HER?' She was barely aware of her hands tightening on Shippo, his uncomfortable stir in her arms made her relax her hold subconsciously.  
  
"Houshi-sama! Kaede-sama!" Koharu's infinitely bubbly voice broke through Kagome's distracted thoughts. The girl had a large basket slung over her arm, full of the collected bits of leaf and herb that Kaede had requested. The old miko was constantly in need of medicinal plants, and now was a good time to harvest many of them, while they were green and potent.  
  
There was a strange flush to Miroku's cheek, and Kagome blinked as the blue eyes went from her flat belly to Koharu's in a side-ways glance that she did not miss.  
  
'Maybe it's the clothes. We all look like priestesses in this get- up.' She passed a sour look over her own red-and-white attire, a well-known face flashing before her mind's eye. A face she had seen in the crystal- clear mirror of her bathroom back home in the modern era every day of her life. A face, though, with cold eyes and a light sneer on the soft lips.  
  
'I hate mikos!'  
  
That wasn't true, Kagome chided herself, instantly contrite. She had learned to love Kaede like an older aunt or grandmother, had met other priestesses in her travels through the Sengoku Jidai that she respected and even liked a little, in the brief time she spent with them. Not all mikos were dark.  
  
'And neither is Kikyo, really. She is just so wrapped up in pain and heartbreak. She just needs time...and InuYasha.'  
  
Maybe it was all for the best, she thought sadly.  
  
Koharu distracted her again by setting down her over-flowing basket by Kaede's feet, and bowing in respect to the older miko. Kaede nodded her approval, pulling the basket to her and sifting thoughtfully through the contents. Koharu went directly for Miroku, and almost stepped on Myouga in her haste.  
  
The addled flea made a break for it, and settled on the porch beside Kagome, mumbling incoherent protests about his treatment at the hands of ningen.  
  
Kagome's lips curved in silent, sudden amusement. 'He sounds like Jaken!' Shippo cuddled closer in her lap, letting out a breathy sigh of contentment, and her smile extended to the little kitsune.  
  
There was a slight, husky giggle from Koharu, and Kagome's attention turned toward them, surprise winning through as she saw Miroku flush slightly. Their dark heads, the black hair touched brown with the red rays of the setting sun, were close together. The younger girl was plastered to his side, and the houshi didn't seem to mind at all. In fact, one hand was already smoothing over the red fabric of Koharu's hakama with intimate familiarity.  
  
Kagome eyed that bead-wrapped palm askance. 'She sure is nice about it. Poor Sango.'  
  
As if her thoughts had summoned her, the taijiya was suddenly there, a small Kirara cuddled in her arms. Kagome blinked, letting her muddled thoughts go as she gave her friend a tentative smile.  
  
Sango nodded stiffly, her brown eyes flicking over Miroku and Koharu, and sliding past with no hint of a reaction. She addressed herself to Kaede, and bowed slightly. A disturbed Kirara made a mewling protest at the sudden shift in position, and then yawned, her red eyes closing with limp exhaustion.  
  
"Lady Kaede." Sango's voice was soft and cold all at the same time. Kagome's brow wrinkled in worry over her friend. What had happened to make Sango so...distant? Cold? Walled off? She couldn't put her finger on it, but it felt as if the demon slayer's emotions were locked up tight. She was almost mechanical, like some machine going through the motions and feeling nothing. Kagome could recall other times when the taijiya had closed herself off, putting a barrier between herself and her friends, but never like this. Sango had retreated into herself, and Kagome frowned over what could have possibly caused it.  
  
"I will be leaving in the morning, to return to my own village. I must bury my brother." Kagome hated that stiff, distant voice...wait...what?  
  
'Bury her brother? What?'  
  
"Sango?" A look of horrified realization flashed through Kagome's troubled brown eyes, and she stirred, wanting to go and comfort her friend.  
  
Sango stiffened, and she shook her head slightly at Kagome. Kagome sank back onto the hard steps, feeling hurt, before her own feelings were buried under her concern for the taijiya.  
  
'Oh, Sango! You have such trouble dealing with pain. How can I feel hurt by you not wanting my comfort? You're so hard on yourself, and you hate showing what you always thought were weak emotions. Poor Kohaku. Oh, Sango! What are you going to do?'  
  
What were they all going to do?  
  
..........................  
  
"K-Koga..." He fought for awareness, his body throbbing in two sharp points of echoing pain. But he forced the pain to recede, his mind demanding that he at least make his proud, overly zealous leader aware...aware...  
  
"Brother, I am here." The vitality of that deep voice made him want to fall back into exhaustion, even as an overwhelming sense of adoring pride and love for this, his alpha leader, the wolf lord of the eastern tribes, the fierce protector and strongest ookami of them all...  
  
A calloused palm rested briefly on his forehead, and he could smell the dampened fury of his leader as the youkai struggled for calm.  
  
"They...they attacked...surprised...so tired..." He managed to mumble in between hoarse breaths.  
  
"Ginta, you will survive." Koga growled over him, his fierce will to live bleeding into the swelling heart of his follower.  
  
"Yes." He nearly choked as the pain surged once more. "She...she said so..."  
  
Koga growled, the ice in his blue eyes hardening as he looked past Ginta's outstretched, prone body toward another, that lay beyond his.  
  
"K-Koga." Ginta struggled. He could hear a faint call in the background, a questioning yip and then a startled yelp and thrashing of furry bodies. They were all alive then, or most of them. Thanks to HER.  
  
"S-She saved us." He choked in exhaustion, as more calls from surviving wolf-brothers tingled in his overly-sensitive ears. He struggled to turn his head, as Koga's growl heated and then died, his mouth frowning as he scowled, his eyes narrowed and fierce.  
  
He blinked back the slight film that blinded him in pain, struggling to see her. He groaned again, thought this time it was for her pain, and not his own. She lay fallen and naked, her delicate white skin laced with the burns that had stained it once before...  
  
'She suffers so much...' His simple mind burned on that thought, and he must have said it aloud, because Koga's scowl disappeared into a cold, assessing glance that turned from the wind youkai to focus once more on him.  
  
Ginta tried to pass the urgent desire that swirled through him to his wolf brother and pack leader. "H..." He fought back the darkness that wanted to claim him once more, refusing to let the pain subside until he pressed into Koga's fierce mind that she was important, that she was theirs.  
  
"H..." Koga leaned closer, concern flashing through the cold blue eyes, and Ginta was touched once again by just how much Koga loved them all, a fierce, protective, brotherly love...  
  
Blinking back the distraction, he growled low in frustration, and then said in a hoarse rush, "Help her...help our sister...she needs us...and knows it not..."  
  
"Sister." Koga's growls could be fierce, and his light blue eyes darted toward the wilted female and back to Ginta in annoyance.  
  
"Yes..." Ginta tried to glare and failed miserably, wincing as the pain surged through him once more. This time, he could not keep the banking darkness at bay, and his last hoarse whisper had the wolf lord growling low in his throat once more in protest and disbelief.  
  
"She...is our lady..." 


	40. Chapter ThirtyNine: Disturbed

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.  
  
WARNING: LANGUAGE (Word edit on )  
  
Chapter Thirty-Nine (Disturbed)  
  
"I told you not to move, you stupid whelp."  
  
There was another startled yipe of pain out of Ginta, and Koga bit back a grin that would have marred the suitably stern scowl that crossed his features as he paused before the opened entrance to Hideki's cave. As a healer, the ookami youkai had his own sickroom, and most of the other wolves' avoided it with a healthy---and rampant---dose of superstition.  
  
Pointed ears twitched as a faint growling echo reached him. Hideki's gruff voice was a bit more gentle, if no less sarcastic.  
  
"Don't growl at me, girl. You shouldn't move either. Here, now."  
  
The growl dissolved into a faint hiss of indrawn breath.  
  
"That wasn't so bad, now, was it?"  
  
The growl was back, but lower.  
  
"You're full of yourself this morning, girl." The rough chuckle hid most of what Ginta said, but Koga nearly growled himself at the almost worshipful worry in the wolf-brother's young voice.  
  
"...not hurting so much, are you, my lady?"  
  
'Stupid wolf.'  
  
The damn witch's voice was almost kind, for her. That made Koga want to growl even more. The wind witch shouldn't be acting like a damn---  
  
"I am healing, thank you."  
  
There was a snort that could only be from Hideki, and the old Crack- Tooth began admonishing them both for all the trouble they were putting him through. Most of the other youkai and wolves had recovered from the bandits' surprise ambush in the forest, and had been more than ready to seek revenge on the ningen who had attacked them. But the damn witch had killed them all with her powerful Winds, and it annoyed Koga no end that there was no one left for him to take the frothing anger out on that he had over the whole debacle.  
  
She, alone, had saved his pack, his blood. And nearly at the cost of her own life. He would never have imagined it of her, would never have believed the damn wind witch would actually risk her own hide for those of her enemies'. And worse than that, the ookami clan's sentiment had turned so that all the stupid wolves were actually supporting and protecting her, dropping hints in his ears that the witch of Naraku wasn't so bad, really, when all was said and done. She had, after all, saved them.  
  
'Damn it all to hell.'  
  
What they were really trying to say was that the kaze youkai had paid her debt, in blood, to the wolf tribes.  
  
Grimacing, the wolf leader eyed the white scar left on his arm by the poisonous crystal that Naraku had given him. The bitter memory of the wind witch's taunting voice as she told him just what the malevolently fake Jewel shard would do to him flashed through his mind, and he growled. He could not resolve the memory of that mocking (witch) of Naraku's to the quiet youkai who inspired such fierce loyalty from his followers, namely Ginta and Hakkaku.  
  
Hideki broke into his grim thoughts, the grizzled grey head popping out of the cave entrance to scowl at him.  
  
"You might as well come inside instead of standing there all morning."  
  
Koga glared.  
  
'Old fart.'  
  
"Don't glare at me. And if you glare at my patients..." The head disappeared with the words, and Koga could do nothing but clench his fists and suppress a growl. That old wolf was just asking for it...  
  
Still glaring, he followed the healer into the darkened cave. His icy blue eyes did lighten somewhat as they wandered over Ginta. The young youkai was grinning from ear to ear as a red-ruffed ookami swiped his cheek with a pink tongue. The bulky bandages over his right shoulder and leg had been reduced to a light wrapping to protect them from dirt and infection. The wounds, deep as they were, should be healed completely by tomorrow.  
  
The witch, on the other hand, was another matter.  
  
He had spoken to Hideki at length, after the old healer had first gone over the woman's extensive injuries. The old fart had been angry that the wind demon had been in such a state...again. All this "again" crap had gotten on Koga's raw nerves, and he had demanded to know what THAT was all about. And Hideki had told him how those two idiots, Ginta and Hakkaku, had found Naraku's youkai incarnation in the forest, all burnt and broken.  
  
He had forgotten about it with all the other nonsense going on. All of his unanswered questions regarding the kaze youkai came flooding back to run circles in his mind. He hated not knowing what the hell was going on, and he intended to find out just WHY the witch had been found like that in the bushes by his ookami.  
  
He scowled, his pale blue eyes turning on the white form. The witch was actually snuggled up to three wolves, the disloyal brutes, and she didn't look as bad as all Hideki's fussing had suggested. She was covered by a white yukata---the old fart must have a stash of them hidden somewhere, the packrat---and her long, wavy black hair tumbled over her shoulders and tangled with the brown fur of the wolf who curled around her back, providing a head rest. The damn witch was actually smiling faintly at Ginta, and her red eyes, which could be as hard as glinting rubies at times, were almost warm.  
  
Her eyes turned at his abrupt entrance, and immediately the smile faded. Her eyes were once again guarded as she dropped them from meeting his. The rust-colored wolf who rested on her left side stirred slightly as a bandaged hand curled in its fur.  
  
"Koga!" Ginta, at least, was glad to see him. Ignoring Kagura for the moment, Koga knelt down beside the wolf-brother.  
  
"You all right?" He asked gruffly, dismissing Hideki's derisive snort.  
  
"Oh, yes! I'm almost good as new." Ginta bared his canines in a grin, and then winced as the muscles on his injured shoulder twitched. His panting neighbor whined, and then licked the youkai's cheek.  
  
Hideki snorted again. The old fart had an incredible supply of them. Kneeling on Ginta's other side, the healer gave Koga a pointed look before saying roughly, "Come on, whelp. You need to exercise those muscles."  
  
"But..." Ginta's eyes rolled toward Kagura, and Koga stifled a dark scowl.  
  
Was every damn ookami out to protect that stupid witch from him?  
  
"Quit howling like a puppy." Hideki rumbled, and pushed Ginta's furry companion aside so he could help the injured youkai stand. Koga would have assisted, but Hideki waved him away. "I can manage this lout. I was doing it long before you were a gleam in your father's eye..."  
  
Arms crossed, Koga glared at the old wolf as he helped Ginta to his feet. The stupid youkai actually cast a worried glance back at the witch, making Koga want to roar with irritation over it all, until Hideki shoved the wolf-brother toward the cave entrance. Hideki did match him glare for glare, and the old Crack-Tooth actually mouthed a silent order at him.  
  
'What do you mean, "Don't upset her"? You're all acting as if I meant to bite the damn (witch)'s head off!'  
  
Damn it all to hell.  
  
There was tense silence between them as Hideki and Ginta left the cave, and Koga kept his arms crossed in anger as his blue gaze swept back over the wind youkai that was causing him such a headache.  
  
She laid there like a damn invalid, her red eyes hidden by the thick feathers of her long lashes. Her skin was almost pallid, and the darkly purple streak of the jagged scar that snaked down her right cheek appeared black in the dim light of the cave. Smoldering coals glowed dully in the fire-pit, heating some stinky concoction of Hideki's creation. The dampened fire provided little light, but his sharper ookami eyesight could make out the woman's features perfectly.  
  
Her fingers were still curled in the rusty fur of the wolf at her side, and the traitor wuffed encouragingly under his breath. The other two lifted their heads and stared at Koga with unblinking yellow eyes, one allowing a big yawn to open its mouth before laying its head on its paws.  
  
"Is there something you want?" She finally asked.  
  
Snort. 'Not likely.'  
  
"No."  
  
"Then why are you here?"  
  
"This is MY land. I have every right to be here!"  
  
She just stared at him, silent.  
  
'Damn youkai witch...'  
  
"Are you better?" His voice was gruff.  
  
"Yes."  
  
What the hell to ask her now?  
  
They regarded each other in silence, light blue and deep red. Scarlet, really.  
  
Growling softly, he whirled around to face the sullen coals of Hideki's fire. "What the hell happened to you?"  
  
Her silence was getting on his nerves. Damn it all to hell. Folding his arms against his braced body, because he really wanted to clench his fists and start smashing into something with his frustration and he didn't dare show such an uncontrolled display in front of that condescending snob of a female witch, he turned his head to glare at her, expecting one of her haughty, coldly disdainful looks of scorn that she so excelled in giving him.  
  
But her head was bent, the dark curtain of her hair falling forward to hide her expression. His eyes narrowed on her bandaged hands, which gave her unease away.  
  
She was actually wringing them, unconsciously.  
  
A thick brow quirked up at that, and a sudden spurt of smug amusement shot through him, making a toothy grin break through his scowl. 'Ha! The cold (witch) shows her weakness...'  
  
He stalked over to her, making her look up at him and flinch slightly before dropping her head again. Her hands stilled in her lap. One of the wolves stirred and whined softly. Koga silenced him with a curt growl. With a deliberate motion, he settled himself casually beside her, the rusty wolf between them, but close enough so that he could lean forward and intimidate her further.  
  
Doing just that, he actually grinned at her, his blue eyes assessing her reaction.  
  
She flinched again.  
  
She had turned into a damn weakling. He should be elated at his power over her, but he didn't like it. It wasn't familiar.  
  
"You sure look a mess."  
  
THAT had her backbone stiffening and her red eyes flashing. She even started to snarl at him briefly, before cutting herself off and losing her spine. What the hell was wrong with her?  
  
"What the hell is wrong with you?"  
  
Red eyes flashed again as she stiffened. "Are you always this crass?"  
  
He grinned, fangs flashing.  
  
She turned her head away, but this time it didn't droop like a wilted flower. She was back to being her haughty self.  
  
'Ha!'  
  
"You should have let me die."  
  
'What?!'  
  
He snarled. What kind of sick bastard did she think he was, to leave her dying in the forest after she had saved his men? The witch was stark, raving mad.  
  
"You're crazy." His voice was flat, but accusatory.  
  
A wry smile actually curved her mouth for a moment before disappearing. Her eyes were distant, her mind elsewhere, wherever crazy people in their crazy minds actually went.  
  
She was irritating the hell out of him. Nostrils flaring with impatience, he crossed his arms and glared at her. "What the hell were you doing in the woods when Ginta and Hakkaku found you?"  
  
Her red eyes focused on him, but she remained quiet, as if carefully considering what to say to him.  
  
"You lost a battle with some youkai." Koga made a wild guess, but there was no reaction from her. It wasn't that, then.  
  
"Naraku, then."  
  
Something flashed deep in the ruby depths, and she couldn't contain the convulsive shiver that ran over her white body.  
  
'Ha!'  
  
Koga leaned back slightly, triumphant. Her eyes dropped from his, and she seemed to fall in on herself, going all boneless and weak again. Damn it all, he hated that! She even turned her head from him, flashing her neck. Did the stupid (witch) even know what that meant?  
  
A clawed hand snaked out and he grasped her chin, pulling it so he could see the jagged line of the scar on her cheek. Anger briefly flashed through her eyes, making them glow for a moment, before disappearing as she closed them, all limp and submissive.  
  
Damn it all to hell.  
  
His voice was harsh as he growled. "He gave you this."  
  
There was a slight movement against his claws as she nodded once, saying nothing.  
  
"Why?"  
  
She jerked her chin out of his hold and turned back away from him. The wolf between them made a curious noise in the back of its throat and turned its nose to lick her shoulder softly.  
  
"WELL?" He deliberately roared.  
  
It worked. Her back was firming once more and those damn red eyes were heating up. At least the stupid female wasn't acting all stupid and grovelly, he hated that. One of Kagome's many charms had been that she had stood up to him. He liked that in a woman. He had no time for weak-kneed females.  
  
"You are unbelievable." She hissed at him. Koga only chuckled.  
  
"I try." He gave her a wolfish grin. She just glared.  
  
Crossing his arms, his own light blue eyes narrowed on her. "Now, are you going to tell me what the hell I want to know or are we going to sit here all day while you weep and sniffle like a newborn pup?"  
  
Her eyes widened in outrage, making him want to laugh again. Kagura was so easily manipulated.  
  
"You are an uncouth bastard." She even snarled at him, delighting him further.  
  
"I try." He grinned again.  
  
.....................  
  
A small rock whizzed across the placid water of the pool before it thunked down beneath the surface. Widening ripples disturbed the still pool, agitating the setting sun's reflection as Koga watched. Idly palming a second stone, he let that one fly as well.  
  
'Damn it all to hell.'  
  
What the witch had revealed to him had disturbed him as much as he was disturbing the pool by throwing rocks. What Kagura had not said had been as telling as what she had. He didn't like it. Not one bit.  
  
Could he trust her? Could he believe her?  
  
Growling softly, his claws curled around another rock that lay beside him on the dusty shore. He could sense a few of the wolves keeping their distance, not wanting to disturb him or his troubled thoughts.  
  
'That damn hanyou is one sick, twisted bastard.'  
  
Kagura hadn't revealed everything. She had just related the bare facts, in a toneless voice that had disturbed him more than if she had been all ranting and raving against everything that had been done to her. And some nasty crap had been done to her. The wind witch didn't really go into it, but he wasn't stupid, and he could read between the lines she gave him. Some of it, he had known. She had been created by Naraku, with the help of the nearly-completed Shikon no Tama he held in his foul claws, out of the Wind and by separating some of the devoured demons that made up the nasty hanyou's own nasty self. That was how the wind witch could be a full youkai and her "creator" only a half-breed hanyou.  
  
But that twisted freak had kept one important part from her...her heart.  
  
'Sick, truly sick.'  
  
Naraku had kept it in a jar, no less. REALLY sick and twisted, that.  
  
He could even grudgingly respect her determination to win free of him. Not many youkai would have had the claws to survive the dark hanyou's control and manipulation, and for the past three years that must have seemed like eternity to the witch. He could hear the bitterness and hate in her voice as she relayed that to him, in a few short sentences that had revealed her loathing of the dark hanyou. Turning her bitterness to those around her, it was almost as if she had protected her true feelings behind a defensive barrier of proud steel.  
  
He might be able to forgive her actions on the part of Naraku, but could he forgive the cruel taunts that had haunted him nightly since that awful day when she had slaughtered his brothers? He could understand, maybe, how her loathing could turn on others, but still...  
  
He wished, suddenly, that Kagome was here. That girl could help him sort it out. She would be able to forgive the wind witch. She could forgive anybody.  
  
Hadn't she forgiven him?  
  
That girl brought out the best in everybody around her, and if he wanted to be worthy of the little miko, he should really try and forgive Kagura what she had done to his tribe, and to himself.  
  
Scowling, he threw the rock in his hand with force, making a splash against the pool's calm surface.  
  
Kagura had paid her debt, blood for blood.  
  
He still didn't have to like it.  
  
...........................  
  
Sango slipped out of the small hut without disturbing anyone. Or, at least, she thought she had not disturbed anyone. But by the time she had retrieved her boomerang from where it leaned against the outer wooden wall of Kaede's hut, Kagome was there, blinking sleepily at her and waving back a yawn. Kirara, who had waited patiently for Sango to slip Hiraikotsu over her shoulder, sat back on her haunches and matched the young miko's yawn.  
  
Stiffening, Sango tried to pass the girl by with only a nod of acknowledgment. She should have known that Kagome wouldn't put up with that.  
  
Kagome was sensitive enough to respect her silence, and just followed behind the taijiya as she made her way past the sleeping village and to the tall, wooden arch that stood over the bottom of the long, stone steps that led up toward the shrine. Sango was actually comforted by the girl's presence. She wished she could be more free with Kagome, but the hurt inside of her was too deep. If she even allowed one tiny crack in her desperately held armor, all of it would come flooding out, and she didn't want to lose control like that.  
  
They were both slightly out of breath by the time they reached the top of the steps, and Sango paused, watching Kagome as the girl traced a finger along the second arch that crowned the top. Did this shrine remind Kagome of the one she had lived in, in her own time? Kagome had mentioned once that the layout, at least, was similar. What memories or regrets could be circling through the beautiful girl's mind right now?  
  
Suddenly wanting to comfort, and be comforted, Sango reached out tentatively. But Kirara mewed, interrupting her hesitant motion, and she let her hand fall. Kagome shook herself, and gave her a small smile, barely seen in the indigo darkness of pre-dawn.  
  
"I miss them, sometimes."  
  
Sango knew that Kagome was speaking of her family, and her heart clenched. Kagome had lost her younger brother in a way almost akin to Sango losing Kohaku. But Kagome, at least, could hope that her little brother would have a happy and fulfilling life. Kohaku never would now.  
  
Closing her eyes against the sudden dry, burning ache in them, Sango turned away and walked past the young miko. Bypassing the desecrated grave of Kikyo, the taijiya went inside the small temple where her brother's body had been laid out and cremated. All that remained of her little brother was a small clay urn of his ashes. She would take it, with his weapon, and bury him in her home village, to lie at rest with her father and the other demon slayers who had paid with their lives to defend their honor.  
  
She could do no less than they, and refused to show the weakness of her lonely heart. Honor demanded strength.  
  
Without asking, Kirara transformed to her larger form with a glowing flare of red-orange light, and she rumbled encouragingly as Sango's cold hands picked up the urn. It was surprisingly heavy in her arms. She had expected it to be much lighter.  
  
Silently, Kagome picked up the curved scythe that Kohaku had trained with so long and hard, always hoping to impress their stern father with his growing skill. Kaede and Miroku had both done something to sanctify the blade, which had been bathed in the blood of innocents, and might have attracted evil to its side. Now it was just a scythe, notched and dented.  
  
Sango turned her back on the temple, and stepped back outside, both Kirara and Kagome following her. The dawn was not far off. The deep sky was already turning indigo, the palest blush at the far eastern edge heralding the sun's imminent arrival.  
  
"Sango...I..." Kagome began, wanting to comfort.  
  
Blinking back salty tears, Sango shook her head. "I...can't...right now, Kagome."  
  
A small, white hand curled on her shoulder for a brief moment and squeezed her understanding. It was Kagome who knelt and tied Kohaku's weapon to her side. The feel of it was awkward next to her katana. The chain rattled as Sango turned to Kirara.  
  
The neko youkai stepped forward, and Sango settled herself gingerly on the creamy back. Twin tails flicked at her own long tail of black hair, and the cat rumbled soothingly under her. Sango cradled the urn in one hand and dug her fingers into the warm fur with the other in silent appreciation.  
  
Kagome's pale face was a blur in the chilly pre-dawn sky, her soft brown eyes dark. "Will you return to us after you have...?" The girl could not bring herself to say it, but the words hung between them in the air.  
  
'Will you return to us after you have buried your brother?'  
  
"I don't know." Sango could only be honest with Kagome, no matter how much it hurt. "I..."  
  
"Oh, Sango. Please do. I know it's all hurting and awful right now, but remember that you are not alone any longer!" Kagome said in a rush, her hands clasped in front of her.  
  
'But I am alone right now. I am the last of my blood...'  
  
Kagome couldn't hold back a sniffle. "I'm sorry, Sango. It's just awful how everything has come about, and..."  
  
'InuYasha.'  
  
Sango wasn't certain what had happened between the hanyou and Kagome, but she knew WHO had happened between them. 'Kikyo.'  
  
Kagome shook her dark head, and squared her shoulders. "Whatever happens, Sango, please come back to us...to me. I'm going to miss you, onee- chan."  
  
Sango started at Kagome calling her "older sister", and a slight smile actually curved her stiff mouth. She was only a year or two older than Kagome, but she whispered softly, her heart a bit lighter, "I promise, imouta. When I am done with..." She shrugged, her hand tightening on her brother's urn, and the smile disappeared.  
  
Kagome leaned forward and impetuously hugged her. Eyes burning, Sango sagged for a moment against her "little sister", her head coming to rest on Kagome's slight shoulder as the girl enfolded her. Blinking back the emotions that threatened to overwhelm her, Sango straightened and bowed her head.  
  
"Thank you." She said softly.  
  
"Just return to us, Sango. You promised!" There was a flash of white teeth in the palling darkness as Kagome lightly teased her. With a final nod, Sango tightened her knees against Kirara's warm sides, and the neko wuffed softly at Kagome in farewell. Kagome stepped back, and the youkai's black paws flared to life. With an incredible leap, the neko was airborne and drawing away from the shrine and the girl whose heart was so big it could heal the world.  
  
Sango waved once, uncertain if Kagome could see it, and then turned her attention forward, holding tight to the urn nestled in the crook of her arm and holding tighter to the emotions that would dare break through.  
  
When she was ready, she would return.  
  
..........................  
  
A/N: Two nice, long chapters to make up for the long wait! I have some good stuff coming in the future. Thanks again for all the support, and time is in short supply. I will try and catch up on my reading as well. Some of you have sent me some good fanfic summaries, and when I get some free time, I'll attack them. Take care!  
  
Fate 


	41. Chapter Forty: Awful Indignant

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or storyline. This fic is only for entertainment purposes only.  
  
A/N: Whew. Sorry about the long wait. Finally got one out, and I will be having more within the week. =) Also more Sess and Kag, I promise! Thank you for all the support and reviews, especial thanks to Hito, you spurred me on, and Vyncent, you concern was a jeweled light in the darkness of delay, and to Amy F. who has always inspired. I do need opinions though. Many reviewers have wanted to know how many more chapters will be added to Vengeance, and to be honest, there is still quite a bit to the story. But I am wondering if I should end this part of the over-all story in a few chapters, and begin a "sequel" story where all the nice lovey-dovey waffy stuff occurs...and the ultimate finale of Naraku, of course. "The Price of Vengeance" is getting bulky, and will be even more so with continuation. How do y'all feel about sequels and split stories? Good or bad? Let me know, I beg of you! Thanks and take care!  
  
Chapter Forty (Indignant/Awful)  
  
Grunt.  
  
"Eyah!"  
  
Slam!  
  
"What the hell is wrong with my sword?!"  
  
Muerr.  
  
"Totosai!"  
  
"That was MoMo, not me, InuYasha. Can't you tell the difference between a bull youkai and a master sword smith?"  
  
Grunt.  
  
"Totosai! What the hell is wrong with Tetsusaiga?"  
  
"What do you mean? Have you hurt my precious treasure? Oh, Tetsusaiga, has that impetuous half-breed damaged you?"  
  
"Watch out!"  
  
The sword smith jumped back, out of the heavy fang's descent.  
  
SLAM!  
  
"Oh. Is the sword too heavy for you?"  
Growl.  
  
"Don't flash your fangs at ME, InuYasha!"  
  
"If you don't tell me, old man, in the next instant, just what the hell you did to my sword, I'm going to---" Amber eyes darkened ominously.  
  
"Manners hardly run in your family, InuYasha, but you should be more polite to an old youkai like myself."  
  
"If you don't---" Sparks of red flashed over the narrowed amber eyes.  
  
Muerr?  
  
"Yes, yes, MoMo. I'm coming. Just a minute."  
  
"Now, just YOU wait a minute, Totosai!" InuYasha seethed.  
  
"Stop your howling, InuYasha. If you would let me get a word in edge- wise---"  
  
Growl.  
  
Sigh. "Dog demons are all alike. Always in a great hurry." Totosai shook his head at the impetuosity of youth.  
  
"Totosai..."  
  
With an agility belying his age, the sword smith jumped on the broad back of his bovine companion, who merely snorted at the solid impact and blinked his three eyes with resignation as he swallowed the juicy roots of the grass he had been chewing.  
  
"Where the hell are you going?!" InuYasha demanded as Totosai winced at the volume youthful lungs could achieve. The Tetsusaiga, heavy point on the ground, flared once in white fire and diminished into the dented blade that hid its power. The hanyou slammed the lighter blade into its sheath with unnecessary force, glaring at the youkai sword smith.  
  
Bulging white eyes blinked in surprise. "You think I'm going to sit around here waiting for someone evil enough to claim that awful stick of Kaijinbo's to come passing by?"  
  
Quick as a flash, InuYasha's hearty fist swung out, toppling the sword smith over the other side of MoMo. The bull youkai turned and regarded his fallen friend before bending down to grab up some more of the tasty green hillside they stood upon.  
  
Totosai rested on his head for a moment, cradling the long wooden mallet in his claws and regarding the hanyou with thoughtful eyes. InuYasha stood, arms crossed and feet braced, his hard amber eyes glowering at the old youkai.  
  
"You don't give up easily, do you, InuYasha?" Totosai said rather mildly, given the circumstances and his upside-down position facing the hanyou's bare feet. The boy's toe-claws were as white as those decorating the end of his fingers, the sword smith noted idly. How did he keep them so clean tramping around barefoot in the dirt like he did?  
  
A faint growl claimed the sword smith's attention, and he realized just how precarious his perch was. Once realization struck, the youkai fell over with a muffled, undignified grunt. Laying on his back, he blinked up at the sky.  
  
"Totosai..."  
  
"I'm awake. I'm awake." The old youkai grumbled before cracking his jaw on a yawn. All of that stupid energy was wasted on the young. Shrugging his shoulders and cracking his neck, the youkai jumped back to his feet with a single, vigorously age-denying motion.  
  
The hanyou's attention was on the evil sword Kaijinbo had created, and Totosai couldn't stop the grimace that crossed his bland features. When he thought about the stupid young apprentice with his awful lust for power...  
  
'Well, all's well that ends well.'  
  
Kaijinbo had met his end on the blade of his master's forging. Tetsusaiga had defeated the stupid power-mad youkai, although the blood- lusting Toukijin had done its part, too. The sword with it awesome awfulness had overwhelmed the weak defenses of its crazed creator, and had sent the possessed sword-apprentice after InuYasha. It was a good thing InuYasha had lasted until his transformation back into a half-demon. Even though the hanyou often derided his human side, and he was, of course, more vulnerable in that state, he was still strong and powerful, for a mere ningen.  
  
'Still, thank the holies the boy only transforms one night a month.'  
  
InuYasha' impatient scowl broke into the the smith's idle speculation. "You still haven't told me, old man, what's wrong with my sword."  
  
Totosai scratched his balding head, his tall hammer leaning against the other shoulder. "Well, lemme think."  
  
Silver-white hair swirled as the hanyou spun around and stalked over the the evil sword. Toukijin was sunk in the earth, the violet-streaked fuchsia haze of its anger visible to the naked eye. The cursed blade flared once as InuYasha neared it, and then subsided into glowering ineffectively at the hanyou with the swirling mists of its malignant aura.  
  
InuYasha unhooked the sheathed Tetsusaiga from his side and slid into a cross-legged position on the grass, cradling the fang in his lap. Totosai cast a side-ways glance at MoMo, who was happily chomping tender bits of grassy greenery, triple eyes half-lidded in contentment, before walking over to the hanyou's side and flopping down in his own squat.  
  
A hip cracked as the old youkai sat down, and InuYasha sent him a sharp look at the noise, amusement sparking golden in the amber eyes. Totosai returned it with a sour glare.  
  
'Just you wait, puppy. Your turn will come in time.'  
  
Both of them stared at Toukijin's discontent, although Totosai's rambling mind was not on that particular blade, but on the one the hanyou clutched possessively in his arms. That was good, the hanyou should keep a hold on the gift of his father. It was, possibly, the only thing that could save the puppy from himself, and the powerful inu blood of his demon father.  
  
"You know, InuYasha, that it was Tetsusaiga that kept you from losing your soul to that blood-sucking inu side of your nature." Totosai began rather mildly.  
  
"What?" InuYasha's head whipped around to stare at him before his thick, black brows came down to glare. "But Tetsusaiga was broken, you idiot!"  
  
"Oh." He'd forgotten about that. "Then what was it that called you back from the demon?"  
  
InuYasha dropped his amber eyes to the grass at his feet. "I don't know." He said, chagrined. "Sango was there, and SesshouMaru."  
  
"That old tyrant?" Totosai harrumphed to himself. 'I wonder what THAT means. Has SesshouMaru been tested as well?'  
  
InuTaisho had come to him, years past him wanting to bother and count, and required the forging of two swords for his sons. That old crafty bastard had known well what the raging blood of his inu heritage could do, and had sought out a way to control it for both of his sons. The Western Lord had spent years studying the problem, seeking knowledge over the known- --and unknown---worlds...  
  
He recalled the words he had written to InuTaisho in the ink- splattered chicken-scratch of his own hand: "Tenseiga was made for the first son, and Tetsusaiga for the second. Each to protect, and each to guide." He had delivered the swords to the Lord at that time, and InuTaisho had been more than pleased with their forging. He had disposed of them as he'd seen fit, Tenseiga for his first-born and pure-blooded youkai son, Tetsusaiga for his second, hanyou boy.  
  
SesshouMaru should have been pleased with his own sword. It was a powerful blade, equal in strength to Tetsusaiga and the best Totosai had ever forged in a long career that had brought him little recognition but much pride. But that arrogant ass had only seen Tenseiga as worthless, a blade that could not cut, could not wound and maim and bring destruction.  
  
'Stupid puppy.'  
  
Another stupid puppy was sitting beside him, and Totosai marveled sometimes at how InuTaisho, whom he had greatly respected and admired, could have fathered such brats.  
  
"Well?" InuYasha demanded impatiently.  
  
Totosai blinked. "Eh?"  
  
The hanyou let out a gusty hmph of breath. "I'm still wanting to know why my sword is so damn heavy, old man!"  
  
"Oh." Totosai's eyes twitched over the sheathed blade cradled in the puppy's arms. Another hefty sigh from the impatient hanyou made him blink and come back to the subject.  
  
"Yes, yes. Well, Tetsusaiga was forged from your father's fangs---"  
  
"I KNOW that, you old codger! And you used one of MY fangs to fix it!" InuYasha roared at him, still unsettled by what he considered Totosai's vicious trick at getting one of his fangs out of his mouth. He touched the healed left fang with the tip of his tongue. The old man had been right, his canine had grown back. Still, it had hurt like all hell.  
  
"That's the problem, then." Totosai said with some satisfaction at finding the cause of the hanyou's trouble with the blade. "The balance of the Tetsusaiga is off. Your fangs are different from your father's, you know. You'll get used to it...in time."  
  
InuYasha wasn't pleased at THAT particular bit of news. Amber eyes slitted, he said in a soft, menacing voice, "You aren't going to tell me that I just need practice, are you, old man?"  
  
"Um..." Totosai eyed the hanyou, and then ducked, avoiding the hanyou's powerful fist. He couldn't avoid the other one, though, and he fell over with a throbbing head. "Eow..." He moaned, dropping his beloved hammer and clutching his abused noggin.  
  
"Stupid puppy!" He groused, falling on his back.  
  
InuYasha just crossed his arms and glared, the sheathed fang in his lap.  
  
'Why do inu always resort to violence to get their point across?' He moaned mournfully to himself, his head pounding. Indignance finally made a call, and the sword smith jumped back to his feet, his calloused hand neatly picking up his hammer. He glared at the glaring hanyou, and puffed up his cheeks.  
  
InuYasha ducked, wary of the youkai's fiery breath, but Totosai was just cracking his jaw in agitated distraction. The loud snap of sound made the black brows shoot up and the hanyou regarded him like he was crazy.  
  
He had to get one last point across, and then he would be done with the impetuous puppy. Grimacing as his poor, abused head throbbed again, Totosai scowled and said in a rush, "Keep the sword with you at all times. I don't know how your demonic nature was suppressed before, but it probably won't happen again. Tetsusaiga and Tenseiga are the only things that can keep your father's raging blood at bay, and you better heed my words, InuYasha, when I say that you must not allow yourself to become seperated from Tetsusaiga."  
  
The hanyou scowled at him, white claws clutching possessively on the sword. "Tetsusaiga is mine, old man."  
  
Totosai just snorted. "You better take better care of my precious sword, puppy!"  
  
InuYasha jumped to his feet. "What the hell do you mean by THAT, old man?"  
  
The sword smith just chuckled. At least the puppy was paying attention. Time to get going. He didn't want to hang around when the personage who had commissioned Toukijin's forging came looking for the hostile blade.  
  
Diving for MoMo's brown back, Totosai spun his hammer in a wide arc and smacked the startled bull youkai on its rump to get him started. MoMo mooed a protest, spitting out his juicy lunch.  
  
"Hey!" InuYasha shouted at him. Totosai raised a hand in fond farewell, while the long mallet circled down with more impetus. MoMo got the hint, and shot forward, his speed taking him far enough away from the indignant hanyou that (by the time the dust had settled down) he was a mere speck behind him, the angry aura of Toukijin a lessening intensity in the air that that foolish puppy refused to leave unguarded.  
  
Totosai snorted as MoMo settled into a more amiable pace underneath him.  
  
'Better him than me. Poor puppy.'  
  
.........................  
  
'I am forever humiliated.'  
  
The dismayed imp regarded himself in the polished surface of the mirror that revealed, all too well, his humiliation in full. Dressed in a trailing yellow kimono with bright pink poppies covering the silken expanse and a rather garish orange scarf that circled his poor head like a crown, his yellow eyes bulged at the awful image that stood boggle-eyed in the mirror.  
  
"Jaken-sama! You look pretty!" Rin clapped her hands with delight. Her own kimono of blue-leafed green glory was crossed with an over-long obi of the same orange color as his kerchief. Where the brat had gotten the awful clothing was beyond the indignant imp, but he suspected that that evil henchman Suyo had had a hand in it.  
  
Sorrowfully turning away from that awful image in the mirror, Jaken wished with all his might that the Lord was here to stop this utter nonsense. Without the inhibiting presence of the austerely dignified Taiyoukai, the ningen girl had turned into an unmanageable tyrant, ordering him into the most obscene clothing, demanding he sacrifice his own august dignity on the altar of her "Let's pretend". Dressing him up was one of her favorite past-times, only secondary to her consuming need to drive him to distraction with her inventive pranks.  
  
There was a faint scratching at the door, and Jaken snapped out a waspish answer to the request for entrance. The screen was slid back and the youkai servant bowed to him, his shock at Jaken's rather unorthodox appearance only noticeable by the slight whirling of mild pink eyes.  
  
"Master Jaken. Master Suyo requests your presence; there is a messenger from the border who wishes words with you."  
  
Testy, for the impish advisor was NOT in the best of moods, Jaken snapped back. "Where is he, fool?"  
  
Rin popped her head out from the dusty trunk she had been digging through. Producing her prize---a giant fan almost as wide as she was tall, and painted with white birds on a violently blue background---she smiled, showing a full set of strong white teeth. Her adult tooth had grown in fully over the Lord's long absense. "A guest? Jaken-sama, we have a guest?"  
  
"No, you stinking little turnip. Don't you ever listen? Stupid ningen! He said a messenger has come, NOT a guest!"  
  
"Ooh!" Rin dropped the fan to clap her hands in excitement. "Someone new! Come to visit me?"  
  
"No, you stupid little girl! Don't you ever lis---" Jaken cut himself off with a giant, world-weary sigh. Of course the stupid little turnip of a ningen never listened to him. Crossing his arms (hard to do in the bulky sleeves of a full-sized woman's kimono), he kept his grumbles to himself—mostly—and glared at the bowing youkai, who's absurdly pink eyes were now whirling amusedly at the pair of them.  
  
"Well?" He demanded of the servant, impatient with delay.  
  
"Master, he is awaiting you in the hall." The servant's long nose nearly touched the stone floor in obeisance.  
  
"Very well. Come, Rin." Jaken picked up the trailing hem of his yellow robes and stepped over the prostrate servant, who TRIED to stop him...  
  
"Er...Jaken-sama..."  
  
"WHAT?" Jaken's yellow eyes bulged and his beak nearly split in half with the vehemence of his frustration.  
  
The youkai merely bowed lower, to Jaken's glaring ire. Ignoring the stupid servant, the imp turned sharply to the left, going down the hall where the messenger would be waiting for him. Trailed by a giggling Rin, who had once more taken up her prized fan and was idly snapping it open and shut, the imp was the very figure of outraged dignity.  
  
Even wearing an orange scarf and bright pink poppies.  
  
.........................  
  
Suyo awaited advisor Jaken's arrival before allowing the messenger to speak of what brought him from the border to the Taiyoukai's own fortress. With typical discretion, he had made the nervous kitsune comfortable, offering the wide-eyed youkai the customary refreshment and a token greeting. Although the Taiyoukai had left him, Suyo, in charge of his affairs while the Lord was away, Suyo had a feeling that what this young youkai had to say was important, and that Master Jaken should be there to hear him.  
  
Arms folded, he sat at his ease across from the nervous kitsune, who kept eying the rich trappings that decorated one of the smaller of the Lord's receiving chambers. When Jaken, at last, arrived, the young kitsune nearly jumped out of his skin as the large, paneled doors were slammed open by the impatient imp.  
  
Had he such a feature, Suyo would have lifted an eyebrow at Jaken's attire. Instead, his pink eyes widened a fraction, and he had to hold back the sudden urge to laugh. Jaken was resplendent in bright yellow and pink- poppied silk. The advisor's scaly head was wrapped in a scarf of hideous orange, the matching obi knotted about the waist of his young charge.  
  
'I see.' Suyo appraised the equally-resplendent form of the ningen girl behind Jaken. Rin was in green silk, blue leaves dancing across the wrinkled hem and coinciding with the eye-popping blue of the fan she waved at him in greeting. Waving that giant fan nearly knocked the small girl off of her feet, and she giggled as she lurched into Jaken, who squawked out a protest before grabbing up his hem and making a sharp, bobbing bow in their direction.  
  
The kitsune's eyes widened in shock, and his green eyes shifted toward Suyo as he fidgeted, at a loss for words. Under the spider youkai's bland expression, the young kitsune recovered himself, and he made a proper bow toward the imp, only his furry red tail twitching in violently suppressed merriment.  
  
Kitsune were particularly adept at seeing the hilarity in all seriousness.  
  
"What is this nonsense about?" Jaken demanded irritably. Rin was eying the furry kitsune with twinkling brown eyes over the jagged top of her awful fan, her little pigtail peeking out like a short black tail of its own. The kitsune's mouth twitched, all nervousness forgotten in light of the ridiculous ensemble who had come to meet him, representing the cold Taiyoukai in pink poppies and blue atrocities.  
  
Suyo cleared his throat, not wanting to lessen the Taiyoukai's innate lordliness TOO much. The Lord had a reputation to uphold, after all.  
  
"Young fox, may I introduce my Lord's first advisor, Jaken, and my Lord's ward, Rin." Suyo said with an extra ounce of emotionless superiority.  
  
The kitsune bowed again. Jaken merely jerked his head, and Rin nearly fell over from the weight of her fan and the dragging hem of her kimono in her own lop-sided attempt at a proper bow. Jaken's eyes bulged at the girl's clumsiness, and the imp was too busy screeching discontent at the young, giggling girl to pay attention to the kitsune, who had closed his eyes on them all and recited his message from the heart. In youthful enthusiasm, the kit concentrated hard on what he had been given to say, ignoring everything else around him in his eagerness to speak his message word-perfect, for the honor of his clan.  
  
Amid the shrieks and giggles, Suyo barely made out the messenger's words, and in growing shock, the spider youkai sharply asked for them to be repeated. But the fox demon had finished, and forgotten his message in staring at the imp and girl, who stood beak to cheek, orange scarf to black pigtail, screeching and hiccuping back laughter at each other.  
  
'Impossible. The kit must be mistaken.' Suyo thought to himself, suddenly cold. There was no way the strange miko could be carrying a child...  
  
"Kitsune." He said sharply, and the young fox flinched under the faint red glow in the spider servant's pink eyes. Jaken had thrown his claws up at the girl, who had fallen over into shrieking laughter, rolling on the floor. Squawking his outrage, the imp tried to help the little ningen up, only to come tumbling down on the stones beside Rin in a billowing whirl of eye-wincing colored silk. The poor kitsune's green eyes darted from the tangle on the floor to the eerily cold stare of the four- armed spider demon on his other side.  
  
"Repeat yourself." His left fore-hand made a sharp, cutting gesture, making the kitsune apprehensive. Flushing with embarrassment, the young fox youkai mumbled a bad apology.  
  
"I...I've forgotten." The kit was flushing brighter than his tail, and Suyo reined in his impatience with iron control. He could hardly blame the kitsune, he himself could hardly think with all the caterwauling between Rin and Jaken behind them.  
  
"Your message has been received then, fox." Suyo handed the fidgeting fox a token of thanks, although he should be more severe with the distracted youkai and his forgotten message, he excused the kit's embarrassment as punishment enough.  
  
Even as the spider servant gave the kitsune his token, the young fox's eyes were rolling back toward the undignified display of imp and ningen tumbling on the floor shrieking at each other. Sharply, Suyo said, "You may depart when you wish."  
  
The kitsune flushed again, and beat a hasty retreat out of the hall.  
  
Suyo followed the fox out of the room, his eyes narrowed in deep thought. Could he trust the word of the kitsune youth? Had he heard correctly? The Lord's spies were competent, they had been proven invaluable in the past, and rarely mistaken.  
  
He wondered, idly, if he should hope they were mistaken THIS time.  
  
Whether or not it was true, the Taiyoukai must be informed of this. The youkai's message had not included any knowledge of a possible male responsible for the miko's condition. He could not bring himself to think of the word "pregnancy".  
  
Not yet.  
  
The youkai had simply been curious over the sudden absence of half the small group of allies that had formed around InuYasha, the Taiyoukai's hanyou brother. Lord SesshouMaru had employed their services in the past, using their information to keep a distant eye on his half-brother. The knowledge of the miko's pregnancy was hardly a secret, she was protectively cared for by the aging miko of the village and the others who remained with them. The hanyou and the taijiya, however, were gone.  
  
'My Lord must know of this, and as soon as possible.'  
  
But where---and how---to find the Taiyoukai? There had been no word from him in the past two months. While an absence of this length had not been uncommon in the past, the Lord had been more diligent in his responsibilities since he had taken the girl Rin into his custody and care.  
  
The shriek of the girl's laughter behind him gave Suyo some comfort. The Lord would not be so absent as to leave the girl on her own for too much longer.  
  
The accompanied shriek of outrage from Jaken comforted the concerned spider demon even more.  
  
Jaken would not be able to survive Rin for much longer. 


	42. Chapter FortyOne: Bitter

Disclaimer: Sob...I do not own InuYasha, etc. Rumiko Takahashi does.  
  
WARNING: Language and Dead Miko Present  
  
Chapter Forty-One (Bitter)  
  
He had spent two days guarding that infernal blade, fighting off the pettily insignificant demons who had come to investigate it, attracted by the evil aura the damn thing exuded.Only one bear youkai had given him any real trouble; the Tetsusaiga was still too damn heavy for him to wield easily, and he had had to resort to his claws in shredding the stupid bear apart. The youkai had been surprisingly strong, but the Jewel shard that had popped out of its bony forehead had explained a lot.   
  
So his time wasn't totally wasted. He at least had a Jewel shard to show for it.  
  
'Damn it, anyway.'  
  
Scowling at the stupid sword that kept him here, he paced back and forth. But he wasn't being totally honest. Toukijin was just an excuse. He was wasting time, not wanting to return to the village where he would have to see Kagome again and confront his failure to protect her. More than two months had passed since he had left Kaede's village, and the wound of his heart was still too raw.  
  
'Damn.'  
  
Closing amber eyes, he almost missed the faint shift in wind that brought an all-too-familiar scent to his heightened senses.  
  
Nose twitching, his eyes opened in shock as a white ribbon hissed on the slight breeze.  
  
'Kikyo...'  
  
He watched silently as the miko, wrapped in the protective embrace of her escorting Soul Collectors, descended to the earth. Her brown eyes, so sadly distant and yet so coldly direct, locked with his own, and InuYasha felt the familiar clench of his heart and the aching sadness and faint sense of defeated failure that was always with him now when he thought of either of them, Kagome or Kikyo.  
  
He could not, now, seem to seperate them in his mind...  
  
Kagome's fragrance had always seemed to be of early spring flowers, an almost painful reminder of what had once been so promisingly familiar in Kikyo, when he had first met the pure-hearted miko who was so innocently determined to guard the Shikon no Tama entrusted to her care by the demon slayers who guarded Midoriko's cavernous tomb. Unlike Kagome's freshly sweet scent, there had always been the hint of early spring rains in Kikyo's---a hint, perhaps, of the sad loneliness that had drawn him to her. He, himself, had been so sad and lonely then, eschewing the company of both ningen and youkai, who hated, feared and despised him for his halfling heritage. He could understand her separateness, her guarded heart that ached for companionship and normalcy.  
  
The scent of her now was far different from before. Even after she had been recast into the body of clay and ash by the witch Urasue, he had still caught the fragrance of early spring blooms, overshadowed by the suggestion of dusty age. Now, Kikyo's scent was that of dying flowers, weighted down by the watery onset of a cold, early winter.  
  
Nostrils flaring, he had to hold back the flinch that would curl him away from it.  
  
'My Kikyo, what has changed?' His mind cried.  
  
A white serpent curled around him, hissing, and then returned to its mistress as her sandaled feet settled softly on the grass. The other Soul Collectors unwound themselves from around her, their red eyes glowing faintly as they streamed on either side of him and curled back to hover around the dead miko, ribboning in and out and around each other in a slow dance above their heads.  
  
Kikyo's face was so familiar, he could trace each line of it from memory. Even her cold, assessing eyes were so familiar now that he saw them in disturbed dreams. Usually, her features would have been over-lain with the image of a far warmer pair of deep brown eyes, a friendly smile touching the stiff miko's lips as he thought of Kikyo's reincarnation, Kagome.  
  
"InuYasha." Her voice was even cold and dead to him now.  
  
What in all the hells had changed?  
  
He simply stared at her, unable to say her name. Or that of another...  
  
A faint sneer marred the sweet mouth of memory. "What is this? You have no welcome for me, then?"  
  
She was so bitter and hateful.  
  
'Kikyo...' His mind despaired as he remained silent.  
  
Tapered nails drummed on her forearms as the cold miko crossed them, regarding him with aloof disdain. "You have changed."  
  
His mind echoed her words. He couldn't recognize this haughty shadow as his first love anymore. He could not delude himself any longer that what he felt was anything more than regret, a consuming sadness and haunting sense of failure.  
  
'I'm sorry...'  
  
For everything.  
  
The cold brown eyes narrowed, a malicious gleam sparking in the darkened depths. "Have you found your miko, then? Have you seen how useless she is now that she can no longer use her sacred powers?"  
  
'What have you become Kikyo? You were never so bitter and hateful.'  
  
The usually composed miko became agitated at his continued silence. "Have you nothing to say to me, InuYasha? You have never been so quiet in my presence!"  
  
Shifting his weight from one leg to the other, InuYasha slightly bowed his head in acknowledgment of her snapping words. Feeling empty, amber eyes as sad as Kikyo's could be, he repeated her words. "You have changed."  
  
Bitter laughter curled between them and sent an icy dagger down InuYasha's spine. How could he have deluded himself that this vengeful spirit could ever be his pure-hearted miko? He recalled, suddenly, the taunting voice of the witch Urasue, who had stolen a part of Kagome's soul and raised Kikyo's body from the ashes of her grave.  
  
'That damn witch was right. This Kikyo is only a shadow of her former self, driven by hate and vengeance.'  
  
The shadow stepped forward, raising a cold hand that she would have pressed against his cheek, except he recoiled abruptly from any contact between them. He would not have been able to stand it.  
  
The dead miko's hand whipped back, and her dark eyes sent him a look of sparking hatred and loathing. "You would recoil from ME?" Her words were low and sharp. "How DARE you!"  
  
"You are not my Kikyo." InuYasha's voice was strained, as his heart ached in longing for the return of his first love.  
  
"You half-breed bastard!" Kikyo-who-was-not-Kikyo hissed at him. Two Soul Collectors joined her in silent reproof, their narrow mouths snarling a whispered cry as they twined protectively around her. "I despise you! I have always despised you!"  
  
"Kikyo..." He said, heart truly mourning her loss.  
  
Her lips curled in a sneer as a look of loathing filled the cold eyes. "You stupid half-breed! Do you think I could have ever loved such a one as you? I was---am---a miko! A shrine priestess! I have been trained to hate youkai, and I always despised your demon blood! You might---might---have been acceptable to me if you had become a normal man..."  
  
He blinked in shock, the sharp dagger of her words cutting him to the soul.  
  
Her taunting laugh sounded on the faint breeze. The cruel aura that covered Toukijin in malevolency flared and pulsed with the chilling bitterness of her voice. "Stupid hanyou! I sought release, pure and simple, from my confining duties as the guardian of the Shikon no Tama. I did not know, when first I was given that hell-spawned gem, that I would be as a slave to it..."  
  
She paused, dark eyes narrowing on his left sleeve. "You have a shard of the Jewel."  
  
InuYasha stepped back away from her, one hand touching the hilt of his Tetsusaiga in reassurance.  
  
Eyes coldly intent, she said with an arch to her brow. "You have no need of it. You have no intention---now---of becoming a mere human."  
  
She could still read him so easily. He cursed the Fates that would allow her to know him so effortlessly. He had trusted her, opened himself to her...  
  
No. If he was honest with himself, he had never truly trusted her. He had never trusted anyone...until Kagome. And even with Kagome's truly giving heart, her sweet gift had been overshadowed by his faint distrust and the boiling memory of Kikyo...  
  
To whom he had, actually, given his heart...  
  
Bitter with the pain of her rejection, he nearly snarled at her. Kikyo just looked amused at his defensive posture and the hard glint in his golden-amber eyes.  
  
Persuasive, the dead miko said softly, "Give me the Jewel shard, InuYasha. You have no true need of it."  
  
"Why?" He did snarl then, unable to help himself. "So you can give it to Naraku?"  
  
"Perhaps." She smiled enigmatically to herself.  
  
"I still don't understand WHY you gave Naraku all those Jewel shards, Kikyo! Don't you realize just how much power that damn demon has now?"  
  
"You could never understand what I am doing, InuYasha. You were always too ignorant and simple."  
  
"Don't you realize how much terror and death Naraku has caused with the Shikon shards YOU gave him?"  
  
"Hmm. Perhaps I should feel regret for that, but I don't." There was no emotion in the cold, dead eyes.  
"I don't understand you Kikyo." He said sadly, claws tightening on the sheathed sword at his side, ears flattening against the silver-white mane.  
  
"Did you ever?"  
  
He refused to answer that taunt out-loud. Instead, deliberately, he turned his back on her, rejecting her in the inu youkai way she might not understand but that meant so much to him.  
  
Even if she did not understand the deeper meaning behind his gesture, she was not unaffected. Cold hands fisting at her sides, she screamed at him. "Don't turn away from me, hanyou!"  
  
Bowing his head, he walked away from her.  
  
She was suddenly there, beside him, her stiff fingers clawing at his red sleeve as she hissed in his ear. "I will never let you forget me, InuYasha!"  
  
Even now, he could not hurt her, but he turned his head away. A hand, cold as death, snaked around his neck and he tensed under it, waiting for her to call the sacred energy that might well end his life.  
  
Instead, the miko's fingers curled around the prayer-beads that encircled his neck. Jerking back in shock, he heard Kikyo give forth a triumphant cry as her twisting fingers pulled on the strand and snapped it free.  
  
'NO!!!'  
  
Snarling, he jumped away from her, landing in a defensive crouch, red sparks of fury flashing over his outraged eyes. Beads fell between them, lost among the deep green grass that covered the hillside. Behind the cruel smile of the miko, Toukijin's malevolent aura glowed brighter, as if taking delight, like Kikyo did, in his shock and horror.  
  
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" He roared, his claws reaching for the naked flesh of his throat, seeking the beads that had encircled there for the past three years, a symbol of his tie to Kagome.  
  
"What need do you have of them, InuYasha? It's not as if you had ever truly loved her. You only loved ME." Kikyo mocked him. "I have freed you from her influence. You should thank me."  
  
Rage intensified inside of him, and he could only snarl at her as the blood crept further into his glowing eyes.  
  
Kikyo merely laughed, that hard, mocking snicker that disgusted him to the core.  
That bitter laugh was actually what brought him back into control, dampening the fires of his inu anger. Golden amber returned to his eyes, and he stared at the shadow of his dead love with coldness.  
  
'You are nothing to me.'  
  
The mocking laughter was abruptly cut off, and the dead miko surveyed him through narrowed eyes, as black as obsidian. She was still beautiful, but it was a cruel beauty that could not touch him.  
  
"I should kill you." Kikyo hissed, eyes like black ice.  
  
He stood his ground, crossing his arms, expression impassive.  
  
She sneered at him. "That would be too easy."   
  
He couldn't contain the faint snort of derision at her haughty words.  
  
Eyes tapered to slits, the dark miko trembled slightly with the burning rage of her soul. Three Soul Collectors, their white bodies gleaming like untouched snow in the brilliant yellow sun that crowned the day, swirled around her, hissing slightly. Red eyes glowed, and Kikyo seemed to draw strength from them, calm detachment returning to her cold body. Her dark brown eyes still spat ice at him, but her voice had returned to the smug mockery of her hatred of him.  
  
One delicately white hand came up to softly caress a hovering Soul Collector as her words cut between them like a katana. "You have failed me, InuYasha. Just as you failed my foolish reincarnation. You are worthless to me. I have no more use of you."  
  
A growl came from the hanyou as he tensed under her pointed attack. Claws reached for the hilt of Tetsusaiga, and he bared his fangs at the evil spectre of his former love who knew how to wound him as no other by the sharp sting of her mocking words.  
  
More youkai came to encircle their mistress, her silent call to them gathering them around her like a shielding barrier. Her voice was as cold as death as she sneered her pronouncement. "Now you will know the price of my vengeance, InuYasha."  
  
She rose slightly as the encircling youkai tightened their hold, pulling her up. Her cutting words sent a dagger to the very heart of him, to the very center of his lonely soul who had only ever sought acceptance and only found rejection, to the nagging self-doubt that plagued him and he hid behind a brash armor of mistrust and argument.  
  
"You are damned to wander the world alone. Forever. As you have damned me. No one will ever, could ever, love a weakened half-demon such as you. You are a pathetic excuse for a half-man hanyou bastard. I sentence you then, to what you deserve."  
  
Amber eyes widened in shock and fury even as his inner being shivered under the damning words that could actually affect him the most.  
  
"Know my price, InuYasha! You will never find happiness! You will always be what you are now..."  
  
"ALONE."  
  
.......................................  
  
Someone was calling to him.  
  
Wearily, the hanyou tried to dismiss it. But the call persisted.  
  
'Damn it. WHAT?' Irritated, the hanyou's amber eyes lit on the angry miasma that swirled over the evil sword he refused to leave. Toukijin's aura remained unchanged, glaring back at him with fuchsia-streaked bitterness.  
  
He sat huddled on the ground a bit away from Toukijin, his own sword cradled in his arms. Sighing in discontent, he dropped his eyes from the evil blade and bent his head against the wrapped hilt of Tetsusaiga. The cold steel of the cross-bars dug into one cheek, and he actually took some familiar comfort from the contact.  
  
There was a tiny prick against his left arm, rousing him from his dark thoughts. Growling faintly, he ignored it. The pressure returned, and he jerked his arm out, shaking the red sleeve loose, hoping to get rid of whatever it was that was biting him. Jumping to his feet, he glare around him.  
  
There was a soft pfft on the ground, and InuYasha blinked in shock at the Jewel shard that glowed bright white and pale pink in a brilliant flash of radiance. Nestled in the grass, the Shikon shard flared and pulsed with its own light, a purer glow than what surrounded Toukijin in a miasma of hate.  
  
'Just what in all---'  
  
Dropping to his knees, white claws reached tentatively for the pulsating shard. Cupping the slight warmth of it in his palm, he stared at the small jagged piece of the Shikon no Tama in confusion.  
  
'What the hell is going on?'  
  
His ears twitched, seeking any noise or presence that would have sparked the Jewel shard to life. There was nothing in the darkened twilight of early night that would set him on edge. But that gem was acting damn strange right now, and he didn't like it.  
  
"Damn it, anyway!" Impatience nipped at his heels, and he snarled at the Jewel, his claws fisting over the stupid shard that was annoying him and acting plain crazy.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
The fist covering the Jewel shard swung, suddenly, to the left, pointing slight south and east. Of its own volition. He tried to jerk his hand back, a growl welling up out of him, his eyes swirling with the red of agitated impatience.  
  
The Jewel's radiance brightened, so that he could see the glow of white and pink through the clenched claws of his fist. Amber eyes widened as Tetsusaiga, held sheathed in his right hand, pulsed in answer.  
  
"Damn it! What's going on!"  
  
He was needed. Somewhere. Someone was calling him...  
  
He was suddenly filled with the urgency to be there, get there, help...  
  
His clawed feet were running away with him even before his mind could catch up with them. Growling his discontent, he clawed to a stop long enough to tie that stupid fang to his side. The Jewel shard was now pulsating, and Tetsusaiga was bubbling with unleashed power at his side. The sense of urgency was filling him, consuming him. He could delay no longer.  
  
Feet slipped across the dampened grass as the cold of night surrounded him. Ignoring it, the hanyou was up and away, the powerful movement of his legs carrying him up into the air, the pure white light of the Jewel shard his only guide, the evil aura of Toukijin forgotten in the distance as urgent need drove him on into the night.  
  
...................................  
A/N - Okay, this was SUPPOSED to be a Sessy chapter, but InuYasha kept banging around in my head. Sessy soon, promise. The votes are tallied, and the stays have it. Thank you so much for all of the encouraging reviews sent for the last chapter, and all the many ideas sparked by those same supporters. Fairia, huggles, you don't know what it means to me to have you actually dreaming about my fic! Awn! Some of my best plot twists come out of dreams...heehee...loved the email and your ideas are REALLY inspirational! Thank you everyone for your support of this fic, I'm having a WAFF attack. A few side-notes: Jazngurl, miss your guidance through Japanese names and lore! Vyncent, miss you too! Pallas, sniffle, haven't heard from you in a while, hope you are okay. Thanks, Belle, for more sexy anime, and Kilala81, for some great humor in SesshouMaru's Advice Column and for the Jaken WWE smack down...lol. To all else, thank you thank you thank you! 


	43. Chapter FortyTwo: Tried

Disclaimer: Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.

A/N: I twisted up some more of the anime, introducing Sarena and Sazuna, sister assassins for those who have forgotten (that particular episode is one of my personal favs), and I need to define the name of "Kumiko", which means "eternal beautiful child" for some idle humor included in this chappie. Sorry, folks, Sessy is still refusing to make an appearance yet...that Taiyoukai believes in being fashionably late (grrr). Thanks for the continued reviews and support! All ideas encouraged. Fairia, thanks for inspiration, hugs Kilala81 for the recommendation (again) on S'Spark (one of the best fics is her continued four part "Secrets of the Shinju"), and Jazngurl, my attack is being mounted for Japanese translation (thanks!).

WARNING: Battle scene, dark imagery.

Chapter Forty-Two (Tried)

"Koga! Koooogaaaah!"

A wolf howled lustily in reply, betraying his location.

'Damn it all.' Dark brows came down in a sharp vee to accompany the icy glare out of light blue eyes that narrowed on the culprit, who crouched under the dark scowl and whined.

"Koga!!!"

'Damn.' "WHAT?" He roared, startling the birds out of the nearby brush with the volume and irritation he could put in one single bellow.

A white-spiked head popped out from behind a tree, and Hakkaku's face split into a wide, toothy grin at having found him.

"Hiya, Koga." He said way too damn cheerfully.

Koga sent him a dark look, and deliberately closed his eyes again. Stupid wolves were always interrupting his nap-time...

He tried to ignore the wolf-brother's scuffing footsteps, he really tried. But Hakkaku had as much stealth---or lack of it---as a raging boar crashing through the forest. He growled, and one of his wolves whined at him, confused.

'Damn it all.'

"Koga?"

Why couldn't they leave him ALONE for ONE gods-be-damned MOMENT?

There was a nervous pawing at the dirt, and he knew it wasn't a wolf, but a wolf-brother. That stupid youkai was now blocking the warmth of the sun, his shadow falling over his leader, who had been lazily wiling away a few hours snoozing in the grass with some furry companions.

Forcing his eyes back open, the irritated scowl grew darker as Koga realized that it wasn't only Hakkaku who stood over him, but half-a-dozen wolf-brothers, all anxious and staring. Flashing fangs, he jumped up, scaring them all back, four-pawed wolfish companions scrambling in retreat with yips and yelps at the sudden movement.

Blue eyes spitting, he yelled between gritted teeth. "WHAT?"

They all looked at each other nervously, and it was Hakkaku who got elbowed forward to face his wrath. The other cowards stepped back, out of the reach of flying fists of irritation.

Hakkaku gulped.

"Uh..."

"What...is...IT?" Koga was really growling now.

"Um..."

The dark vee was back between icy blue eyes and Hakkaku finally spit it out in a rush that left Koga more irritated than before.

"Katashi-from-the-north-is-here-with-his-tribe-and-wa...wants---demands---t...to-see-you."

'Demands?'

His expression must have said a lot, because Hakkaku ducked, and with singular mental agreement, the whole damn cowardly lot of them high-tailed it out of there, leaving their leader snarling furiously behind them.

Even the small pack of wolves who had been taking their ease and napping in the sunshine with him were gone.

"DAMN IT ALL!"

..............................

She had really hoped to make it through breakfast this time, she really did. But it was the eels that did it. Cooked in their own juice and swimming in a light sauce, served by a beaming old peasant woman with a hatchet face and hooked nose under the last wisps of receding grey hair, who kept bowing like a bobbing beach-ball floating in choppy waves because her old knees wouldn't bend too far.

Maybe it was the bobbing that first gave her stomach the idea to start bouncing on its own. But it was definitely the smell of those eels, so lovingly cooked and swimming around all over each other, that finally did it.

Turning pale, Kagome barely made it out of the hut in time.

She had left them there to stare after her, and it was Koharu who hastily took up the dish from the old woman's stunned hands. Kaede made the apologies, while Shippo and Miroku exchanged concerned looks over Kagome's abrupt departure.

The old woman was bobbing her forgiveness to Kaede when Koharu suddenly froze, growing pale, and dropped the contents of the gift on the floor with a splash and clatter of the wooden bowl hitting the floor. They all sat back in shock as the girl whirled around and beat a hasty retreat out of the hut, after Kagome.

Kaede stared at Miroku, who, quite frankly, sat with his mouth wide open like a gaping fish. Narrowing her eye, she made a wry apology to the old peasant woman, who just mumbled toothlessly and bobbed again. As the old woman left, it was Shippo who oh-so-helpfully returned her bowl.

Snatching it, the old woman scuttled out, ripe with scandalized gossip to spread over the village.

"Miroku." Kaede said, her black eye aimed like a hawk's on the stunned monk.

"Um..." Miroku flushed, not wanting to meet the old miko's gaze.

"We must talk." The priestess said rather too calmly, motioning for him to proceed her outside, and quickly.

Rings jangled on the long end of his staff, and the monk stepped out smartly, the gnarled priestess following after. Shippo sat on his furry haunches, looking around the disturbed meal with wide green eyes.

'Why'd everybody go?'

................................

"Water." Kagome croaked.

"Mmph." Koharu handed over the cask. Ignoring the wooden dipper that hung from a thong on the side of the panikan, Kagome lifted the vessel and drank like a sailor, water rivulets running down her cheeks.

Koharu sat back on her knees, blinking in surprise at the usually ladylike girl's guzzling. Kagome even looked a bit disappointed when she realized the cask was empty. Putting it down, the older girl wiped the droplets from her chin, sighing disconsolately.

"Kagome?" Koharu asked uncertainly. In her memory, Kagome had never acted like THIS.

Hiccup.

"Ooh." A small hand covered her mouth and Kagome blushed furiously. Koharu giggled, an infectious giggle that made Kagome join in. Both were smiling, their embarrassment forgotten as they stared at each other with warm brown eyes.

"I wonder if old Kumiko will get over it." Koharu said, laughing as she recalled the old woman's shocked expression.

Kagome chortled. "Kumiko? That's her name?"

Koharu had a wide smile, and it was adorable when she used it. "I know. Funny, isn't it? But I guess a mother doesn't think her child will ever grow old and...um...not pretty."

Kagome flushed, reminded of her own forthcoming child. She touched her growing abdomen with trepidation. Would she think her child would be forever beautiful?

'Of course, dummy.' She chided herself.

Would the father?

She ignored that thought, putting it neatly aside.

Koharu's hands were also covering her stomach, trailing softly over the flat curve Kagome envied. She shouldn't be so jealous of the younger girl, but she felt like she was getting TOO fat. And she shouldn't be gaining this much weight this early, really she shouldn't. But she couldn't seem to stop eating...well, except at breakfast.

She was suddenly starving, and her stomach growled in complaint.

Koharu blinked at the noise. "You aren't hungry, are you?"

Kagome blushed. It was almost a joke among the villagers just how much she was eating. But Kaede didn't seem at all worried. The old miko was pretty stoic about it, advising her that all women were different and that fretting over it was bad for the baby.

'She doesn't have to worry. She's not the one pregnant.' Kagome grumbled to herself, and then felt immediately remorseful. 'I'm being a real grouch. Kaede, all of them, have been so nice and helpful and kind.'

The villagers, who had always seemed so nice but so, well, seperate, had opened their arms and supported her in so many ways that shocked and surprised her. There were nightly discussions (and arguments) over multiple dinner-tables about what name the boy---for she was carrying a boy, that was a given fact, as one older woman had explained: "You still have a beautiful face. If you were ugly, then that means you would have given your girl-child your beauty, because that is tradition. But as you are still pretty, child, that means you are carrying a son, who has no use for your pretty face."---should be called. Every day, some woman or another was coming with gifts and food to give the "expectant mother". Kagome appreciated it, really she did, but she was a bit overwhelmed by it all.

'Don't they know I'm carrying a---'

Well...she didn't know what she carried. There was some doubt on that. Kagome had assumed that she would have a hanyou, she was, in fact, a human girl, whatever powers she might have, and the father...well, the father was a youkai. So...logic assumed that her baby would be a hanyou like InuYasha.

Right?

But Kaede had some doubts. She was concerned that Kagome was a miko, and that there might be something to make the baby, well...not hanyou. Maybe the baby would be born a full youkai.

Her stomach rumbled again, demanding food, and NOW.

Letting her worries go---really, Kaede was right, she shouldn't be upsetting the baby---she stood up slowly. The daily ritual of her morning nausea had cleared off, and she was ravenous.

She could really go for a hamburger from WacDonald's right now. A nice, big, juicy hamburger with lots of sauce and cheese and greasy fries...

'Kami! I MUST be carrying a boy.'

Mournfully, she thought about the miso soup and boiled egg that waited for her back at the hut. Kaede insisted that she eat eggs---it would give the baby wisdom, and besides, it was healthy for her. Oh, and the steamed vegetables. Ugh. Normally, she liked vegetables. But Kaede was really strict when it came to vegetables. The old miko must have a huge stock of them, because they appeared at every meal, and were often pressed on her as snacks.

"Come on, Koharu." She said, stomach still making a scene. "Let's go see if Miroku and Shippo have left us anything."

Koharu giggled, and jumped to her feet. Kagome envied the lithe movement. She didn't seem to be moving so gracefully these days.

"You know, Kagome, the villagers ARE being nice and supportive, bringing us food and all." Koharu said.

Her sense of humor returning, Kagome replied with a mischievous smile, "Let's just hope, though, that they don't bring any more eels."

Koharu giggled, and, impetuously, Kagome took the younger girl's hand. Koharu gave her a shy smile, and squeezed it with complete understanding.

................................

'There's too many of them!'

Sango dove under the striking claws that reached for her throat. Bringing up Hiraikotsu, she beat back her exhaustion and ignored the pain of leaden limbs and tingling hands as she swung the heavy weapon back at the roaring monster.

The towering youkai, one horn springing up from its bulging forehead, bellowed as the powerful boomerang chopped it in two through the gut. Another youkai feinted to her left, its powerful tail with the barbed end striking quick as a snake, hoping to throw her off balance long enough to get past her guard.

Calculating to the second, Sango waited and then jumped straight up, whipping her legs out of danger's path. The youkai roared its discontent and reached for her with curving claws.

Ducking aside, the battling taijiya swung Hiraikotsu at the menacing demon, and barely caught the attack of a second one, a flying skull, who dove at her head. Using Hiraikotsu as a shield, she plowed into the first demon, and used the boned weapon as a leverage to arch over him and strike the flying skull with the deadly precision of her right foot. The skull split under the aimed impact and fell aside.

Screaming her triumph, Sango finished her arc and landed away from the first demon on the balls of her feet. She could hear Kirara snarling defiance behind her, and the higher-pitched voice of Sarena, who was defending her sister Sazuna. The sisters, her so-called "apprentices", had summoned the horde of demons down on them by stealing the remains of various demons from the village workshop. Those bones and pieces of hide, taken from slain youkai by the slayers who killed them, had not been exorcized yet, and once out of the safety of the shielding village, their evil aura had attracted hundreds of other demons to their side.

"Sarena!" Sazuna's shrill scream and Kirara's yowl distracted Sango for the merest second, but it was just enough time for a roaring youkai, lightly green in color and horned as his brother, to strike across her unprotected side. Her reflexes were quick, and she was able to bring Hiraikotsu down long enough to knock his tearing claws aside. The fabric of her slayer armor was tightly woven with demon scales, but the youkai's claws dripped acid, and bit through a part of the fabric and into her skin.

Gritting her teeth, she bit back a fierce cry as the pain stabbed through her, just above her ribs and under her breasts. Her left leg was already twisting out to strike the nasty green-horn in the side even as Hiraikotsu whirled up from defense and wiped the grinning smile off its face. Horn and head sailed through the air, neatly lobbed off by the clean sweep of her powerful weapon.

The second youkai screamed a challenge, and Sango pivoted on her heel, bringing Hiraikotsu to bear. The demon hissed at her, its fetid breath washing over her unprotected face. She had no time to don her protective mask, she could not resort to her poison powder. Even if she were protected, the two sister-assassins were not.

Her father's spirit seemed close to her, and she wondered---even as she dodged and swung at rending claws and screaming youkai---if he was there, guiding her as he always had.

'I want you to live strong.'

Strong.

She had realized, suddenly, as the attacking cloud of youkai had come streaming over the darkened sky, that her father, that Sarena's and Sazuna's father, had not only meant that they should stay strong physically, but that they should stay strong inside as well. She had managed to tell the girls her sudden realization of it...

"Be strong INSIDE. Be happy!"

The howling demons had then attacked, and before she knew it, she was battling for her life.

Diving underneath another three-fingered grab for her throat, Sango forced her arms and legs to work just a bit more. The harsh breath that filled her lungs and gasped out---she was too exhausted to keep up the trained breathing she had been taught---was also gasping out her father's words....

"Be strong...be strong..."

Swinging Hiraikotsu, she shied away from another diving skull and flinched at the yowl and roar of the neko behind her.

'I will be strong, Father.'

If she lived that long...

..............................

He could sense them straight ahead.

'This is close to the slayers' village!'

The Tetsusaiga throbbed at his hip. White claws grasped the hilt in one hand as he drew the blade, the fang flaring to life even as he pulled it from the sheath. The Jewel shard in his left palm flared once more in answer, and then died, its job done. Pushing the silent gem hastily into his flapping right sleeve, he gripped the hilt of Tetsusaiga with both hands, amber eyes glowing as he sought to descend.

Under the foul stench of mindless youkai, he could detect the faint scent of a neko and...

"Hiraikotsu!"

'Sango.'

The hot rage of battle swept over him, and he snarled at the cloud of youkai who seperated him from the taijiya. He could sense other mortals, though the harsh scent of the embattled slayer was stronger to his seeking. Ears flattening against his skull, he lifted the Tetsusaiga over his head, the fang's heaviness forgotten in the heat of battle.

'THERE!'

White swirling winds encircled the arched blade of his father's fang, calling the Wind Scar even before he could align the demonic auras and pinpoint the flashing brilliance of where the demon winds collided. He pushed his astonishment aside and roared his summoning even as he swept the blade down toward the ground that was fast approaching him.

"WIND SCAR!"

White lines of fire flared out from the powerful blade, snapping to life and obliterating everything in their path. The screams of hundreds of demons were cut of in an instant, as the blazing white inferno silenced them forever. Ashes were swept clean by the second flare that accompanied the first, dampening the howling flames of power.

Kirara, gripping a strange girl in her teeth, another sitting precariously on her back, had shied away from those piercing lances of fire, the fiery orange flames on her black-tipped paws dull in comparison to the searing brilliance of the Wind Scar's blaze. As the last shudder of Tetsusaiga's blast ran through the long sword and it thudded to stillness on the ground, InuYasha's eyes lighted on Sango, who had ducked under the protection of her giant boomerang.

As the white lines of fire diminished and died, InuYasha could make out Sango's expression. Her eyes lighted on him, and there was a happiness there he never thought to see again.

"InuYasha!"

Was she...be happy to see HIM?

No. She was just glad he had come and saved them all.

Again.

Plastering a smug look on his face, he tried---he really did---to heft Tetsusaiga back up and rest the curved blade on his shoulder in a cocky stance he had often assumed in the past. But Tetsusaiga suddenly remembered that it was damn heavy right now, and chose that precise moment to let him know it.

Thud.

"OW!"

His back arched under the dragging weight of the sword, who had slipped off his shoulder and dug deep into the earth behind him. Grasping it with both hands, he struggled for a moment, looking damn ridiculous with his arms bent back over his head and his feet scrabbling for a hold on the ground, and then let go to glower at the stupid sword.

Tetsusaiga immediately dissolved into the rusted blade that hid its power.

Disgusted, his fisted claws came to rest on his hips and he glared at the damn fang.

"InuYasha?"

'Damn it, anyway!'

With a jerk, he pulled the lighter blade from the earth. Scowling, he sheathed the rusty traitor and turned back toward the three ningen and neko youkai who stared at him. Crossing his arms, his amber eyes lighted on the strange girls hanging all over Kirara, who had settled gently to the earth.

"Who the hell are you?"

The one on the neko's back drew herself up and returned his glare with one of her own, her dark eyes assessing him even as her mouth quirked up in one corner. The freckles stood out on her white face, and her short, yellow kimono looked pale with dark splashes of leafy branches sweeping the fabric.

"I'm Sazuna." She said smartly. "And that's Sarena." She nodded to the girl held by the back of her dark blue kimono in Kirara's mouth.

The older girl, definitely the first's---Sazuna's---sister, blushed furiously as the neko carefully lowered her to the burnt ground. Sprawling on her side, the older girl readjusted her grip on the wooden haft of her short axe, her sweaty palms leaving imprints on the smooth wood.

Sango limped forward, using Hiraikotsu as a prop to lean against. InuYasha's nostrils flared as he detected the sharp metallic scent of blood---on Sango.

"Sango? You're hurt." He said, eyes narrowing on her.

"It's nothing." She waved his concern aside, and he fell back into familiar gruffness.

"Hmph. Whatever."

She almost broke him out of it.

"Thanks, InuYasha. You came just in time."

'Sango's admitting she needed help?'

He didn't believe his ears, and they twitched at the thought.

Sazuna's sharp eyes focused on the mobile, white dog ears that gave his heritage away to most slow humans. "You're a demon!" She accused.

He scowled at her, arms crossing again.

"He's a friend." Sango said sharply, and amazingly, the brat actually flinched under the taijiya's tone.

"What the hell happened here?" InuYasha demanded of Sango, ignoring the other two for the moment.

Leaning tiredly against her boomerang, the taijiya suddenly looked drained. "It's a long story." She said, eyes softening as they flicked over the two girls. Sazuna slid from Kirara's back, and helped her older sister, Sarena, up. Kirara blew on the girls with a warm wuff of air, and purred slightly, reassuring them both.

Sarena looked around the cleared, burnt area, dark blue eyes wide. Brushing the sweaty ends of her bangs aside, she said frankly, "Our strength could never compare to yours."

A long look passed between Sango and Sarena. There was actually a small hint of a smile on the taijiya's lips, and she said softly, "Remember what your father said---and mine. Remember what they meant for us to be."

Sarena nodded, and Sazuna looked on skeptically. InuYasha didn't like the younger one much, and he didn't much understand the older one. He didn't even care, really.

Sarena returned the slayer's smile, looking all weird. "Be strong inside." Turning to her younger sister, who she patted on the shoulder in reassurance, she said, "We will, Sensei."

'Sensei?'

InuYasha's eyed the serene slayer with a lifted black brow, but Sango was ignoring him for the moment.

"Make your father proud."

Sarena bowed, her patting hand turning into a push for the tardy Sazuna to do so as well. "Thank you." She said simply, and then turned away. Sazuna's eyes widened, as did InuYasha's.

'They aren't just leaving, are they?'

Sarena started off, her startled sister hurrying to catch up. Neither girl turned to look behind as they passed over the long hill and disappeared into the darkened forest.

"They're just LEAVING?"

InuYasha's gaze swept back to Sango. Kirara had moved over next to the taijiya, and his exasperated demand was forgotten as he saw Sango sag against the large neko youkai, who was purring under her hands.

'She's wounded.'

"You're hurt." He accused her again. "What the hell is going on Sango? Who are those brats? Why did they just leave? Why were so many demons attacking all of you? What the hell happened in the last two months?"

Sango closed her eyes; he could sense her exhaustion. She was almost slumped over with it. "Later..." She whispered against Kirara's creamy fur.

"What do you mean, later?" InuYasha growled. "I want to know what the hell is going on right now, damn it!"

Kirara abruptly stopped purring, and stiffened just as Sango collapsed against her in a faint.

'Well, damn.'


	44. Chapter FortyThree: Northerners

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.

A/N: Sorry for the wait. I know you are anxious for SesshouMaru's appearance, and I could not fit him in to the story before certain scenes were done, plus the Taiyoukai likes to make an appearance when HE deems its necessity, and not this poor author. Sigh. Even Fate has to keep the threads aligned...(smacks self...need coffee). After wracking my brain day and night, I finally decided to just post, and keep the pace of updating chapters going. Sess will be coming for Kagome, and within the next week...promise!

WARNING: Some dark imagery brought to you by Naraku.

Chapter Forty-Three (Northerners)

A lonely wind howled over the grassy hill.

'Diverting.'

He always liked creating an entrance, even if he was the only one to see it.

Embroiling clouds darkened the evening stretch of sky, touching the last rays of the sun's departure with sharp streaks of red the color of deepening blood. Faint rumbles on the howling wind spoke of the impending storm that would crash through the night.

Claws clutched at the length of white fur that cloaked him in obscurity. The wind would have tried to snap it from him, but he was stronger than the wind.

He had even used the wind to create his own daughter...

Claws curled into talons with the thought. He didn't like the unforeseen turn of events that youkai's life had taken.

'Wind Sorceress Kagura...daughter...you should have died by that wolf's hand.'

He was still furiously trying to piece together WHY that had not happened. Silent Kanna, with her deadened eyes and far-seeing mirror, had not been able to unravel the mystery. He didn't like it at all.

But he was not here for that.

He was here for his son...

Fangs flashed in a dark grin, and his eyes glowed behind the mocking face of the white baboon with an evil red light, matching the angry aura that sheathed the abandoned sword.

He had so wished the hanyou had been here, alone, waiting for him. It would have been delightful to have played a bit with him before killing him...

But InuYasha had been summoned elsewhere, he didn't know why, and that infuriated him, too.

His fury added deeper velvet to the dark voice that called to the evil sword he had had created from Goshinki's living head...

"Toukijin...I am here for you, my son..."

The aura reddened in anger, glaring its hate.

Naraku smiled.

.................................

"Mew."

"I can tell which bed is hers, damn it. It has her stupid blue cloth on it, doesn't it?" InuYasha growled irritably at the transformed kitten, who flicked her twin tails at him in disdain and mewed again, one small black paw touching the piled blankets at the foot of Sango's futon.

The taijiya was light in his arms, but still it was awkward falling to one knee and shifting her weight around so that he wouldn't jar her too much. Sango's face was drained of color, and he didn't like how shallow her breathing was. There was a growing stain on the front of her torn black armor, and she hadn't awoken once since she had fallen over Kirara outside the village.

Settling the taijiya carefully down on the mattress, he muttered under his breath as the long black tangle of her hair caught on his claws. Picking it off, he was careful not to pull any strands out by jerking his fingers free. Her silky black hair spilled in a fan across one side of the mattress, and he sat back on his haunches, staring at her.

'Now what?'

He wished Kagome or Kaede were there. THEY were the healers. Even Miroku knew more than he did about frail human bodies...especially women's bodies.

"Merew." Kirara batted at a bucket of water, the stilled reflection of a burning oil-lamp shattered into disturbed ripples by the motion.

Water.

Amber eyes lightened, and he leapt into action, grateful the neko, at least, knew what it was doing.

Boiling water. That always helped. At least he could clean Sango's wound with it.

He dumped the whole bucket into the iron cauldron that already hung over the dampened fire. Fire. That was another thing he needed. To boil the water and to heat this dilapidated shack up. That's what Kaede always did when somebody came looking for her skills as a miko healer. Light a fire and boil water...

Thankfully, there was some wood already chopped up by the side of the hut. Actually, it was some torn bits from the broken skeletons of houses that had dotted the village and now stood lonely testament to the emptiness of this place. Hefting up quite a load, he dumped most of it just outside the bamboo-screened doorway and took the rest back inside with him.

Feeding fuel to it, he had a roaring fire in no time. Kirara was more than helpful, taking up a long reed and using it to light additional lanterns. Not that (with his inu-aided blood) he couldn't see well in the dark, but it helped. The water was boiling in moments, and he wondered what to do next.

A black paw batted at a stack of torn cloths kept on a shelf. The lot fell over, some spilling onto the floor.

"Hey!" InuYasha scowled. There was no need to make the place all messy, damn it. Then it hit him.

Cloths to clean Sango's wound out.

Grasping up the loose pile, he grunted a thanks to the helpful kitten, who fluttered her red eyes at him and flicked her tails, jumping down to go nuzzle the slayer and purr loudly.

InuYasha swung the decorative fish that was used as a hook above the fire-pit over to him, and tossed the cloths in. Kirara rumbled at him before he dumped ALL of them in, and he scowled at the innocent neko.

"I'm trying my best, damn it."

Kirara blinked, and pawed Sango's black armor.

InuYasha froze.

'I can't UNDRESS her!'

"You're going to have to do it." He said, amber eyes wide with shock.

Kirara wrinkled her nose and growled at him.

"I can't---" He held up his hands in protest.

"Mewr." Kirara batted Sango's black arm impatiently, red eyes glowing.

'Damn it, anyway.'

................................

It had been Ginta's unlucky fate to be stuck here, keeping an eye on that overbearing wolf Katashi. Hakkaku had left him to sit on a rock and make sure those stupid wolves were not wandering over everything, sniffing around and looking superior.

'Ugly brutes.' He eyed the nearest northerner with a smirk. The old northern tribe had been decimated by Naraku, leaving a smaller clan to take its place, and it was hardly an improvement. Most of the wolf-brothers were scarred up and smelly---he wrinkled his nose at the closest four-legged one, who was a mousy grey with a black stripe running down its back. The wolf actually lolled its tongue back at him, and Ginta glared at it.

One of his own furry companions, a nice handsome red one---a much better color than mousy grey if he thought so himself---gave the intruder a wide grin full of sharp teeth, and his brown one with the creamy face actually growled low in the back of his throat.

The grey furball merely stuck its snout in the air and scratched at a biting flea with its hind-leg.

Kami, he hated northern wolves.

There was a low noise of appreciation from right in back of him, and Ginta nearly fell off his rock with surprise---he hadn't realized Katashi had gotten so close behind him, the arrogant dog.

There was a loud, raucous laugh from the northern leader, who grasped his arm with not-so-gentle claws, and helped him to stand on wobbly legs before letting him go. "You should be better prepared than that, cub!" Katashi said in his booming loud voice that just grated on Ginta's nerves. "Next one to sneak up on you could kill ya."

Narrowing his eyes, Ginta bristled.

Katashi thumped him on the back, nearly knocking him over with the strength of it.

"Ha! You're a funny one, Gina!"

'GINA?!'

"My name's Ginta." He growled. He wasn't a girl!

"Sure. Whatever." Katashi shrugged.

Kami, he hated northern wolf-brothers.

Katashi was not much older than Koga, and he was one ugly brute, in Ginta's sour opinion. Bushy black spikes were held off of his forehead by a furry band that should have been silver-grey if it hadn't been so dusty, and the same went for the black armor, banded with silver fur, that he wore. The only thing the odious ookami youkai kept clean---and sharp, as he half-joked with Ginta---was his katana. He might have bulging muscles enough, though that didn't impress Ginta much---but he had dirt under his claws, which was just flat-out disgusting.

Well, if he was honest, Ginta used to have dirty claws too---he hadn't really thought much about it, until he noticed how carefully Lady Kagura cleaned HERS, and he---and most of the eastern ookami tribe---had quickly followed suit. Now he couldn't keep the wrinkle off his nose at the wolfy stench of the powerful northern youkai.

Of course, all northern wolves stunk---that was a given. But Katashi was more-he was delighted with his own inner joke---overbearing---smirk---than his colleagues.

A heavy fist struck him playfully on the shoulder and Ginta nearly fell over with the impact. Katashi laughed again, and said he needed more strength.

Ginta wanted to strangle him.

"Tell you what, Gina. You tell me who that nice piece of eye-candy is, and I'll take some time off to show you some REAL moves." Katashi grinned toothily.

Ginta blinked. 'Eye-candy?'

There was only one "piece" who might be considered sweet on the eyes...

Damn. That stupid wolf had spotted Kagura.

Ginta's eyes narrowed, and he was really growling now. Except Katashi was ignoring him to bound up on his abandoned sitting-rock, trying to show off the play of his braced muscles (the posturing mutt) and grinning at the "piece of eye-candy", who had no notion she was the object of wolfish scrutiny.

Kagura was far enough away to not have realized that the caverns were now crowded with northern filth---she was out by the forest edge, returning with old Hideki from a herb-gathering expedition. Dozens of wolves, red and brown and creamy clean like good wolves should be---were jumping and milling around the odd pair. Wherever the wind youkai went, gobs of four-legged brothers followed. They had a particular fascination with her, especially over the last few days. They always acted the clown, rolling on their backs and playing around her to make her smile---of course, most of the youkai wolf-brothers tried to do the same. Those rare, soft smiles were prizes sought out like badges of honor among competing ookami---much to Koga's seeming disgust.

Ginta's own eyes turned admiring as he watched the Lady carefully pick her way among milling wolves and tangling brush. She gingerly pushed a red wolf aside, fended off the audacious furball's pink swipe of a tongue, and pulled up something green with a practiced twist of her long fingers. Neatly scooping her prize into the basket she carried for Hideki, she paused a moment for the old healer to catch up with her and examine it. The old wolf grinned one-fanged at her, and she bent her head gracefully next to his, the long black tresses that curled over her shoulders and down her back playfully tossed by a caressing wind, the red rubies of her eyes intense as she focused on the healer.

Wow, she was mesmerizing...

His concentration was broken by Katashi's loud whistle of appreciation.

Ginta growled with sudden menace, hating that possessive gleam in Katashi's yellow eyes. His BULGING, OGLING yellow eyes---the overbearing clod. How DARE he---

Kagura's head had shot up at the piercing noise, and her wide red eyes narrowed on them. Hideki, too, had stiffened at the sound, and he didn't look too happy to see the grey-furred clan from the north.

Ginta wanted to grin with delight suddenly. Kagura's look of withering scorn was a wonderful sight to behold, a work of art really. Her gaze could be as cold as ice when she wanted it to be, and he was giddy-happy when he realized that her coldest was arrowed on Katashi, who stood with his arms braced against his hips, oozing wolfy arrogance and smirking with personal vanity.

"She's a hot little piece, ain't she, Gina? That'd be something to warm your furs at night."

Kami, he hated northern wolves!

.....................................

"Ignore them, girl." Hideki said drily.

Kagura turned her cold gaze to the old healer. Her red eyes softened a bit---that old wolf had been kind, in his way, to her---but she kept her head up. "He is not worth my notice." She said archly.

Hideki grinned, showing the cracked tooth that gave him his grumbled nickname among the wolf-brothers. "He wouldn't much like to hear that, girl."

Kagura arched a thin brow. Should she care?

"That's Katashi, if I know my wolves, and I do. If he's anything like his father, than he's an arrogant lout used to getting his own way."

"And this concerns me how?" Kagura raised her other brow.

Hideki's grin couldn't get any wider if he tried. The kaze youkai was a rare one, and strong enough to keep her own in a wolf pack.

Deliberately turning her back on the "arrogant lout", Kagura made a sharp cutting motion with her free hand at the assembled ookami who crowded her path. Immediately, the wolves wuffed and scrambled out of her way, clearing a path from before her.

She sure knew how to handle the mangy mutts, Hideki thought with admiration. She had them all trained to her slightest hand signal, and the lazy louts adored her.

Funny how they had all taken to hanging around her every minute of every day. She had moved into her own small cave, and what furry bodies couldn't fit in there at night when she slept were lumped outside by the dozens, snarling and snapping at each other to get closer---

That thought had him freeze in mid-step, and he brought his forgotten foot down on one lazy lout's tail. The wolf yelped and jumped out of the way, but Hideki paid it no mind.

'Damn.'

If he thought about it, it all fitted nicely together. The wolves following her around like puppies after their mother, the wolf-brothers arguing among themselves for one of her rare smiles, the constant watch the furballs took up outside her cave...

If he was correct, than the wolves---and wolf-brothers---would be taking much more of an interest in her, and very soon.

'What great timing for the northern clan to have come visiting.'

He actually surprised himself by growling slightly, possessively.

Hell, he wasn't that old that he didn't remember well what a Gathering meant.

'Damn.'

He eyed the wind youkai askance. She was blithely unaware of his attention---or the attentions of the others.

That poor girl was in for a shock.

.....................................

His sleep was restless; he did not know why.

'She calls me...'

Ridiculous. It had been a dream, but a dream.

Still, he did not understand this summoning that plagued him at odd times, withdrawing his attention from his surroundings and snaring it up. The inu within him, his youkai nature, was restless and angry, wanting, desiring something that he did not wish to name.

'Miko.'

She was a witch that would consume his mind. He needed to understand more. What was it that made her so valuable to him, made it vital enough that he would seek her out in his subconscious, desiring her presence?

He had spoken with Bokusenou, who had revealed much but not enough. He needed to know more, much more, and, perhaps, he would not find it in the land of his birth...


	45. Chapter FortyFour: Healing Wounds

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.

Chapter Forty-Four (Healing Wounds)

That black cloth had been damn tough. He didn't ever want to have to try and rip through it again. Grumbling about it kept his mind off of what he was doing with his claws. Try as he might, he couldn't figure out a way to undo the unconscious girl's shirt without re-opening her injury. His first, tentative tugs at her clothing had started a fresh trickle out of the wound on her chest. He could smell the fresh sting of her blood, and she had already lost way too much. He wasn't sure just how much blood a ningen woman could lose, but he didn't like the slightly sour tang that accompanied the scent of Sango's.

Impatience had won out, and he had finally resorted to shredding the hard fabric off at the shoulders and sides, peeling off the layers so that Sango was bare of arm. He didn't want to move her too much, so most of the armored kimono was left underneath the curved arch of her spine and resting back. The last piece of her black clothing still covered her breasts and stomach, and he was loathed to remove it.

Sango stirred slightly, one limp, white hand clenching and then falling back into repose.

'Damn.'

No help for it.

Averting his eyes, he whipped the cloth off of her. Or tried to, anyway.

It was stuck to the wound by her dried blood.

'Damn it, anyway.'

He was careful with his claws, not wanting to pierce her fragile white skin by mistake. He peeled the cloth up from her flat stomach, trying to maintain her modesty (and his) for as long as possible. He had never been this close to a woman before.

'What the hell am I thinking? I've seen naked women before.'

A distant memory of Kagome bathing flashed through his mind, and he flushed.

He had never seen Sango naked before, though.

And he had never been right THERE, beside a naked woman.

'A WOUNDED naked woman, you dog!' He snarled at himself.

Damn.

He was distracted by the renewed smell of her blood as he peeled the stiffened fabric off of her wound. There was a lot of it, and he didn't like it.

'What the hell is that smell?'

Even Kirara was wrinkling her small nose, and she made a disgusted noise. He agreed whole-heartily with her.

His eyes SHOULD have gone straight to Sango's wound, but they didn't. Amber widened slightly as his traitorous orbs shot right to where they shouldn't.

'Hell, I'm turning into as much of a hentai as Miroku.'

Sango had some nice breasts. Firm, fleshy, and more than adequate...

He watched in amazement as the rosy buds pebbled under the slight chill of the night air that even the roaring fire couldn't keep out of the hut. Flushing, his eyes darkened into deeper amber.

Kirara mewled, eyes glowing sadness as she extended a small black paw toward the unconscious taijiya.

'Feh. I AM turning into a damn pervert.'

Shifting his gaze, he straightened up and cracked his neck, trying to get his thoughts back in line. He leaned over to pull a wet cloth from the boiling water over the fire and nearly hissed as his fingers touched the scalding liquid.

'That's what you get, hentai!' He growled to himself, immediately licking his fingertips to heal the scald from them. The curative properties of his saliva, gift of his inu father and hanyou blood, immediately took the sting from the minor burns and healed them.

Kirara mewed again, calling him back. This time, he was more careful in handling the damn cloths. Using a dry one, he pulled the boiling cauldron away from the fire, and set it on the edge so that it would remain hot, but not scalding. Using the same cloth, he fished out a disinfected one from the pot and squeezed the extra water from it.

Both cloths were soaked through by now, and he palmed one, and laid the other across Sango's flat stomach. She inhaled slightly from the contact, and he warily eyed her, wondering if she would wake up.

Would she smack him or thank him?

Pushing THAT stupid thought aside, he concentrated on the bloody mess that covered the taijiya's white skin from breast to stomach. He ran through quite a few wet towels sponging the blood away to reveal the original injury.

'Claws.'

Some demon's claw tips had shredded through the knitted armor and hooked into Sango's flesh. It wasn't deep, thank the Fates, but it was jagged and torn. He hoped it didn't require stitching. There was no way he was any good with a bone needle, and he wasn't about to try his bad skill out on a frail ningen girl.

Using one hand, he pressed on the edges of the wound, knowing he needed to clean it out thoroughly. Fresh blood oozed out, and a sluggish green fester that made him want to gag with the stench of it.

'What the hell?'

Kirara hissed on Sango's other side, her red eyes fixed on that nasty crap. Creamy fur fluffed out, and she growled meaningfully.

"Poison?" He blinked. 'Damn youkai claws...'

Damn youkai acid.

Growling softly under his breath, he pressed harder on the wound, seeking all of it. Red blood, dark in the orange brightness of the inside of the hut, welled out, taking the festering stuff with it. Sango's breathing grew fast and light, and he could feel her heart speeding up as she stirred under his ministrations and moaned softly.

"Sorry." He muttered under his breath, pressing harder.

It took too damn long, but he finally got it all out. There was still a slight odor of the nasty stuff around the site of her injury, and he didn't like that one bit. Kirara had batted the soiled cloths that lay crumpled beside him right out of the hut and through the bamboo curtain that covered the doorway with one surprisingly powerful swipe of her little paw. It took the gagging nausea away from him, but he still didn't like the fact that Sango still had that bit of rank stench to the cleansed scent of her jagged wound.

What to do now?

It was Kirara, of course, who had the answer.

He almost jerked back as a rough tongue lightly licked the back of his hand.

'What the...'

Kirara's eyes glowed, and then the neko deliberately turned her head and licked Sango's limp hand with significance.

"Huh?"

Kirara sat on her haunches, and just looked at him.

Black brows descending, he looked at her askance. "You want me to LICK her?"

"Mew." Twin tails flicked impatiently against the wooden floor he knelt on beside the taijiya's futon.

"Are you crazy?" He scowled at the cat.

Kirara raised one black paw and deliberately licked the fur, cleaning it.

Leaning back on his heels, InuYasha scowled at the precocious cat and crossed his arms over his red haori. "Why don't YOU lick her."

A rough tongue blew him a raspberry, much to his shock.

Then it dawned on him. Kirara's saliva probably had as much healing powers as his own, but the neko's tongue was rough, like all cats', and it wouldn't be too good on the torn edges of Sango's wound.

Inu tongues, on the other hand, weren't so rough.

'Damn it, anyway.'

Sango let out a faint sigh that turned into a restless moan and faded into a hiss of pained silence.

Damn.

Touching his fangs and licking his (suddenly) dry lips, he couldn't keep his eyes from flicking over Sango's bare breasts.

There was no help for it.

Tentatively placing one clawed hand flat on the defined muscles of Sango's stomach and the other---deliberately---on the smooth shoulder closest to him, he bent to his task...

................................

There was a harsh growl behind them.

"Katashi."

The grey wolf youkai turned slightly, one brow arched up, a condescending gleam in the yellow gaze. "Koga. I was wondering when you would show up."

Koga sized up the northern clan chief with a jaundiced eye. Crossing his furred arms, he kept his stance casual, but his ice blue eyes glinted, showing he was ready for anything. "What the hell do you want?"

Katashi pierced his mouth in a smirk. "Hmm...Now what DO I want?"

Koga couldn't keep the low rumble out from the back of his throat. "Don't push me, wolf." He warned. He didn't like that damn whelp any more than he trusted him. Katashi's father had been kicked out of the old northern tribe for being an arrogant son of a bitch, and Katashi was too damn much like his father. After the old clan had been decimated by Naraku, Katashi's tribe had been left the strongest, absorbing the old one in its ranks and taking over the northern territories.

Katashi's yellow---the color of dog pee, the sniveling bastard---eyes were looking him over like he was a side of bad meat. Koga's claws twitched. He'd like to rearrange that arrogant youkai's face with his fist. Flicking his blue eyes to Ginta, who looked ready to pounce at any excuse, Koga deliberately loosened his stance. The last damn thing they needed was a dog fight in HIS caverns.

"Well?" He still couldn't keep the impatient snarl from his voice. Kami, he hated northern wolves!

"I was coming by to ask where Naraku is, to see if you had any---ah---luck---in finding him yet." Katashi grinned toothily as he tossed that barb out.

'Gods, I could really smash that grin off his face right now!'

"But then I got a good eye-full of that piece of youkai over there, and I think I just might stay around for a few days and see what's up." Katashi's eyes glinted as he smirked.

'Piece of youkai---he couldn't mean Kagura, could he? Ha! Does he think I care if he tries making a move on her? The witch would claw his eyes out.'

He was suddenly in a REALLY good mood. One of the---few---things he admired about the wind witch was that she could certainly put a foul-mouthed lecher in his place. This might prove fun. Katashi needed taking down a peg or two.

The stupid dog-turd actually blinked in surprise when Koga suddenly grinned at him, blue eyes lighting with devilish anticipation.

He even shrugged nonchalantly. "You can try. She's not marked, and unclaimed."

Ginta was staring at him, his mouth stuck open. The look of hurt in his eyes almost made Koga want to smack the ookami over the back of his fool head. Damn, he was really getting annoyed with how his men were sniveling after that female.

Katashi smirked again. "Try? Heh." The northern youkai flexed his biceps and grinned with sheer conceit---like that stupid posturing would impress HIM. He didn't have to constantly press his prowess on other people and brag about his skills as a clan chief of the eastern tribe like that foul smelling grey-tailed mongrel---HE didn't need to impress anyone.

He just was who he was.

Katashi's dog pee eyes were scanning over the crest of the hill, searching for his lady-love.

Koga smirked. 'Good luck.'

He'd need it. That cold witch would eat his heart out and spit it back at him.

....................................

The fire had died down somewhat when he was roused from sleep by a strange sound coming from her futon. Blinking back weariness, he scowled at the taijiya who was causing him so much trouble.

Amber eyes glowing, he watched her for a moment, testing the close air of the hut for any sign of what the problem was.

He didn't like what he smelled. Dried sweat, and...sickness...human sickness...

'Damn.'

The noise came again, and he unfolded himself from his propped position against the wall, where he had slept fitfully through the deepening night. Even in the darkness, he could make out the flicking white tails of Kirara, who was making an odd growling noise of concern. Her red eyes turned to him, glowing like lightened rubies in the shadowed room.

"What is it?" He whispered, his voice harsh.

Kirara made a half-mew of sound, and nosed Sango with worry.

That disturbing noise was there, and he realized suddenly that it was Sango's teeth, chattering with cold.

Cold?

It might be a little chilly, the nights had grown longer and the oak leaves were just starting to turn as the summer waned into autumn. But the slayer shouldn't be THAT affected.

Kneeling beside her unconscious form, he quickly placed a hand on her forehead. The silky texture of her hair seemed dry and brittle, and had settled in sweaty whorls under his palm. Her pale skin felt clammy to the touch, and she shivered under him as if she was neck-deep in snow, not wrapped up in blankets and laid by the embered fire.

Stiffening, a thought crossed his mind that made HIM shiver.

'Battle fever.'

Ningen were prone to it---the fevers that settled into the body after a wound had been received in battle. Fevers and chills that wracked the frail human body with little possibility of a cure. Battle fever killed more ningen AFTER a battle than the actual battle itself.

Damn it, anyway.

He felt suddenly helpless, and hated it. His mother had died of a slight winter cough that had turned into a raging fever. Her small, fragile body had not been able to survive the rigors of sickness, and she had died, leaving him alone.

'ALONE.'

Kikyo's words stabbed through him, and he growled softly. Had she cursed him?

No! He wouldn't bow down to it. Sango deserved better than to die ignominiously from a stupid chilling fever, her strength drained away slowly in weak resistance.

Surging to his feet, he bound out of the hut and grappled with the wood he had stocked there earlier. Dragging back several armloads, he quickly built the dampened fire into roaring life. Red and orange flames licked hungrily at the wood he fed to it, dancing with delight as he tumbled more on so that he could get as much heat out of the damn pit as possible.

Kirara pounced on a pile of blankets stored in a dusty corner, and InuYasha seized them up. He discarded the top one as being too gritty to use, but dragged the others and piled them over Sango, who was still shivering. The fire did its work, the girl's teeth were no longer setting him on edge by chattering. But he could not seem to stop the tremors that wracked her small body.

She had always seemed so strong...

Kirara had curled herself along Sango's side, purring reassurance that the taijiya was beyond understanding. The slayer moved restlessly, slipping her right arm out from under the piled blankets and flexing the fingers. But that small movement seemed to exhaust her, and she seemed to fall in on herself, going limp.

Feeling desperate, InuYasha knelt by her side and felt her forehead. The skin was still clammy and cold to the touch. Damn. Picking up her feeble wrist, he sought the strong heartbeat that usually beat inside the taijiya's body, a reflection of her strong will to live. But the beat was light and thready, quickening and scaring him spitless.

Amber eyes turned desperate on the neko.

"Damn it, Kirara! It's not working!"

Kirara mewed sadly, agreeing with him.

Damn.

What to do now? He had done everything he could...

Kirara huddled against Sango's side, trying to share her small warmth with the chilled taijiya.

Eyes lightening into gold, InuYasha seized on that. His body temperature was higher than Sango's, a demon's blood was fierce, and an inu's normal temperature was greater than a mere ningen's. Struggling out of his haori, he left his white kimono on, the thinner fabric would still transmit his body heat.

Kirara sat up and blinked at him, purring. Twin tails flicked out and she jumped across the girl's prone body to lie on the side closest to the fire, giving him room to lie down beside the taijiya. Pushing aside the piled blankets, InuYasha curled around her, pausing only to check on the original wound, all hentai thoughts dissolved under his fears for the girl's very life.

The wound, at least, seemed to be healing. The curative properties of his saliva were doing their work. But Sango still shivered at the slight air that touched her skin, which goose-bumped under its influence and set her teeth to chattering again.

Carefully covering the wound with its bandage, he used the blue length of silk she wore often as a girdle or shawl to shield her modesty, and draped it over her breasts and stomach. Gently, he pulled her close to him, and wrapped himself around her, making certain that she lay face-up, encircled in his arms. His right arm was already falling into numbness as her weight---however slight---rested against it. Using his left hand, he hauled the multi-piled blankets up over them both and cradled her to him.

They were soon nestled together in a glowing circle of warmth, and Sango's teeth quit chattering. Her body stopped shivering against his, and she seemed to turn into him, falling into exhausted quiet in the protective shield of his arms.

Kirara curled beside them, batting the numbed claws of his right hand and purring. He wrinkled his nose at her, holding the taijiya close, his mind scoffing at the neko's gratefulness even as his body held tight.

'Feh. Whatever.'

.................................

Everything seemed so cold and distant..empty....

She was adrift in a place of encompassing darkness, feeling small and insignificant under that black void of sound and light...alone...all alone...

'Please...'

She hated the weakness that made her murmur that word. She could feel her hand curling, trying to seek something to hold onto...her hand...her arm...her body felt as if it were moving through thick honey...

'Tired, so tired...'

Closing her eyes on the blackness, she sought within...for someone...anyone...to fill the lonely void of her heart...

The voice of her father, his strong words intruding into the emptiness around her, stepped back, momentarily, the tide of darkness...

I trained you not only so you can continue a tradition. I want you to live strong...

'Father!' She called out soundlessly, finding no answer. 'I am so lonely...'

Alone...

Shivering, she felt the black coldness, the emptiness all the way to her soul.

She felt something coming closer, holding the kernel of warmth she sought.

'Please...'

She had been so cold, and was now warming...the warmth held her close and she snuggled into it...

A ghost flashed across her mind, bringing the face of one she had buried with defeated sadness...

"Kohaku..." She muttered hoarsely, restless in her dreams. A strong hand brushed across her cheek, pushing back the long sweep of her bangs from her forehead. She whimpered slightly, and sought the warmth again...

The ghost of her brother was leaving her, and she must...she must beg his forgiveness...

Her whisper was low and almost silent, her throat closing. She must...must speak to him before he disappeared...

"I'm sorry..." She whispered. The calloused palm was cupping her cheek, the sharper tips of its fingers kept gently away from grazing her skin, and she stirred under it. No...no...she must speak...must explain the choice she had made...why she had made that choice...apologize for it...apologize...

"I'm so sorry...I loved InuYasha more..."

Wet tears formed in her eyes, one sliding down a pale cheek as she fell further into blackness, this time one of comforting unconsciousness...

................................

There was the thinnest whisper of glowing amber in the half-lidded eyes of the hanyou who lay beside the taijiya, his silver-white head having come to rest in the crook of her shoulder, so that his chin touched the curve of her neck, and his right cheek pressed against hers without bearing down. His hair tangled with hers, silver-white and deepest midnight, and fanned together in whorling tangles across the futon. He had slept, lightly, holding her body tight in his arms.

Had he heard correctly?

No...nobody could ever love a worthless half....

The red brilliance of a neko's eyes warming stilled that lonely thought, and the increased purring of the youkai reassured him as nothing else could have.

Sleep came once more to claim him, and his eyes, warmed with the golden glow of knowledge, closed slowly to hold that knowledge tight within, like a warm shining light in a sea of darkened loneliness.

Twin tails flicked in satisfaction, and the neko curled around, so that her rear paws extended past her bent head, and she smiled, as cats do, secretively to herself, her loud purr of contentment a warm sound in the quiet chill of the lonely night...


	46. Chapter FortyFive: Three Days

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.

WARNING: LANGUAGE (Edited out on )

Chapter Forty-Five (Three Days)

She had managed to avoid him for three days.

It annoyed her that so many grey-hided wolves were hanging around, and that Koga didn't even seem to care. They smelled like dead fish---possibly because their lands were closer to the sea, and they were expert at catching them, even from the nearby lakes. Still, she couldn't stand that gods-awful stench. Some of the four-legged wolves had managed to weasel their way inside her cave last night, after she had fallen asleep. But her penetrating senses had alerted her immediately to the fact that they were in there, and she had snarled them out.

The three culprits had left in a scrambling hurry, tails between their legs and yipping their fright. The eastern wolves---the red and brown ones of Koga's tribe---who had taken up guard in furry lumps all over, in and out, of her cave, had been grinning when the three weasels were tossed out. Kagura had been furious at the eastern wolves---who should have kept those mangy fish-eaters out of her den---until she had seen the tell-tale wounds on quite a few of them. They HAD fought the three weasels, at least, trying to guard her. But, she had to admit, those three stinking mongrels had been big brutes with old battle scars who had muscled their way in.

She had spent a good two hours among the eastern wolves, petting and patting, checking wounds and finding nothing too serious. She had done it deliberately, right under the watching eyes of several northern greys and their staring wolf-brothers who reeked worse, most times, than their four-legged companions.

'That would teach them.'

Or so she thought.

But those posturing dogs wouldn't let up. She might have a high tolerance for the wolves---and ookami youkai---of Koga's clan, they were familiar, they were...well, not family...but perhaps the closest thing to it that she had ever known. She had grown used to them. But those weaseling, posturing, stinking, mangy-haired dogs just got on her nerves, and she wasn't about to put up with their presence in HER cave.

Worst of them all was their so-called leader, an ookami named Katashi. He might---doubtful---have been handsome, if he didn't always have such an outrageously infuriating smirk on his face. But it couldn't be only that annoying, overbearing smirk that turned her off---Koga himself had an arrogant smirk that could get under her skin when she thought about it, which wasn't often. But she didn't loathe him like she did that posturing dog of a clan chief.

First of all, he was filthy. Dirty nailed and dusty-furred, he smelled like wet dog. Her nose wrinkled at the thought. He might have been a strong specimen of a youkai male, but she could care less. His attitude was one of domineering egotism---and there was nothing for the foul fish-boy to be egotistical about.

His yellow eyes were constantly on her, making her skin crawl. When cold looks and sneering scorn had not worked to turn his attention elsewhere, she had deliberately started ignoring him. He kept trying to get close to her, but she always managed to slip away, thanks to the assistance of her countless furry four-legged attendants. She hadn't thought she would ever be grateful to the gathering mutts, but she was.

But her silent withdrawal only seemed to intrigue the infuriating ookami more, and she could barely step outside her small cave without having those piercing yellow eyes staring right at her, leering as if he was picturing her disrobing.

Gods, she hated that!

She wasn't one to be overly modest---how could she be, with panting furballs always milling around? Her body had always been a mere instrument, a tool for her use...

She shied away from that thought, and the thought that her body had once been a tool, a mere instrument, for her creator to use. If there was one thing in this world that she hated and despised more than anything else, it was her creator, Naraku.

When he had freed her, sending her broken body that he had no more use for to the wolves, intending her tortured death by his act, and relishing in it with his sick and twisted sense of sadistic pleasure, she had mourned the loss of her control of the winds. For a long time, she had felt like she was half of what she had been. But now she knew she was more...

She was alive and free, no matter what limitations she might have. And she guarded her freedom of self zealously. She would never submit to another youkai like Naraku, cruel and callous, overly ambitious and uncaring of WHO she was.

And there was something in Katashi's eyes that she recognized. He only saw her as a possession, a jewel, perhaps, to adorn his arm and his bed. A challenge, a prize to be won. Her earlier disdain, perhaps, had been a miscalculation on her part. Her steadfast ambivalence had only drawn him in further, instead of disgusting him and making him leave her alone. He would have her, his raging ego would not allow him anything less.

Lips curling at the thought, she tossed her head, red eyes deepening in defiance. 'We shall just see about THAT.'

THAT was when he had finally caught up with her, the stinking dog.

Nerves raw, mostly due to that ogling brute, she had dismissed her furry companions, needing some time alone and away from them all. She had gone deep into the woods, seeking a quiet place where she might just spend some time ALONE and with her own thoughts. She was feeling restless and on edge, and full of a nervous energy that was driving her crazy.

'Probably comes from all of them hanging around me all the damn time.'

She had believed that finding peace and quiet, being by herself, would calm the edgy uneasiness from her mind. But she had paced, her mind disquiet, and she did not know what was causing her anxious restlessness.

'Damn wolves have me wanting to just kill something.'

She was even growling slightly, much to her own disconcerted surprise. 'I'm hanging around them so much, I'm turning INTO one of them.'

Shiver. What a thought.

She had been so distracted that she hadn't even sensed him coming. He was just THERE, suddenly, and she stepped back, eyes widening in surprise.

"You." She said.

The dusty mongrel gave her an arrogant bow. "Lady Kagura. Finally we meet."

The ookami's yellow eyes flicked down her person and came slowly back up, glowing slightly with appreciation. She felt sullied under that brazen examination.

Thin brows came down, and her ruby eyes narrowed. Her lips curled with scorn. "I have no wish to meet you, wolf. You may leave my presence."

"Your wishes in the matter don't count, Lady." The ookami was annoying in his conceit. He had a knowing gleam in his eye, and actually stood with his feet braced apart, arms fisted over his chest to show him to best advantage.

As if THAT could impress HER.

Eyes cold, she deliberately turned her back on him.

He was on her in a flash, hauling her around with a bruising grip on her smaller arm, and pulling her close to his reeking person. He twisted her arm up behind her back to hold her helpless against him. His armor was hard across her flattened breasts and his other hand came up to curl around her neck and tangle in the thick waves of her long black hair.

"How dare you!" She hissed at him, eyes rubied and fired with ferocity.

"Oh, I dare, Lady." Eyes glowing a yellow challenge, he pulled her face to his and smashed his hard mouth on hers, hauling her up his lean body so that he grind his hips against hers in a possessive, domineering manner that made her sick.

Stiffening in outrage at the attack, Kagura's free hand came up to claw across his cheek. She made her claws go deep, tearing through the skin up to his ear. He released her immediately, his hand coming to his cheek as he snarled at her, yellow eyes flashing red with fury.

"You little (witch)!"

She whirled away from him and into a defensive crouch. Claws outstretched, sunlight glinted on the razor-sharp edges in ominous warning. Her own eyes were glittering rubies of outrage, and she snarled at him. "You stinking dog! How DARE you!"

Katashi's claws curled with menace as he dropped his hand from the wound which seeped sullenly with streaking blood. "You need to be taught your place, woman!"

"My place?" She snarled. "And I suppose you would do me the honor, wolf?"

He flashed sharp fangs at her, yellow eyes glinting across her heaving breasts. "Gladly."

"You could try." She spat at him, fury making her beautiful. Her eyes crimsoned with fury, and the long length of her raven hair tumbled down over her shoulders and frothed over her back, framing the muscled body of a full youkai female on the verge of attack.

He licked his lips, the foul dog, and folded his arms. "You are a hot little piece, Kagura. I like that in a woman. There's no fun in it if there's no fight. You've a strong temperament. You'll make me a fine mate."

'MATE?'

"If you think I would ever consent to lie with you, you stinking dog, you are---"

He laughed at her, making her want to claw that smugly wolfish grin off of his ugly face again. "You'll have no choice in the matter, woman. You're unclaimed, and fair game. I'll kill any wolf who'd dare try and take you from me."

"You uncouth bastard. You'd have to kill me first." She spat at him.

He barked a sharp laugh---gods she hated that laugh. The bastard was as dull-witted as he was single-minded. "I like a feisty woman. After we are mated, I won't tolerate your foul mouth, of course, but it will be amusing taming you, wench."

She snarled, enraged at his patronizing words. Claws curling, she braced her feet, ready to launch for his throat.

"KAGURA."

She froze at that booming voice. 'Damn him!'

Koga was abruptly there, between them, his icy eyes glaring across her disheveled clothing to Katashi's bloody cheek.

She snarled her denied vengeance, wanting that foul wolf to pay for his insults with his life. A strong arm shot out, holding her back with a hard and immovable grip on her shoulder.

"Let me go." She growled, the fury pounding through her, wanting release. All of her restless frustration had a focus now, and she wouldn't be denied. She wanted blood.

"No." There was enough emphasis on the command that she actually gained control of her raging fury, but did not relinquish it. Impotent frustration had her shaking, and her claws curled into fists.

"You would deny me honor?" She hissed at him, eyes narrowed on his own light blue glare.

Katashi's booming laugh washed over them. "Heh! A woman has no honor!"

"I," Koga said coldly, the ring of force in his quiet words, "will deal with him. You will return to the caverns. You are not yourself right now."

She snarled, wanting to claw HIS eyes out now. What did he mean by that? Of course she was herself---

But she wasn't. She was acting like a damn three-year-old having a temper tantrum.

Her lips curled in amusement.

She was acting like Koga at his worst.

His light blue eyes narrowed on her, wanting to know just what was so damn amusing all of a sudden. He was so easily read.

The calm control was back, and she drew herself up. The haughty look of frigidity finally made him let go of her shoulder. She nodded once, sharply, her compliance with his mandate. She would leave it to him---this once.

Back straight, she turned her scathing scorn on the other ookami who should have been beneath her notice. A look of pure abhorrence flashed across her red eyes, making the scarlet deepen, before they cooled under her deliberate dismissal.

He was pathetic.

Her look actually made the other wolf stiffen, and he even snarled at her.

'Truly pathetic.'

"You are hardly worth my notice, ookami dog. If you dare to lay your filthy claws on me again, I will tear your balls off and feed them to you before ripping out your throat and ending your sorry excuse for a life."

Both youkai's eyes widened in surprise at the cool detachment with which she had made that little speech. Red streaks striped Katashi's eyes and his claws fisted at his sides with impotent rage. Koga's glinted a bit, amusement flashing across before being swallowed by the cold aura of dominance he could assume when he chose to exercise it.

Kagura made a graceful bow, the final touch to her insult. Raising her head high, she turned away from the ungracious dogs and walked—slowly, carelessly---away from them and into the darkened forest.

...............................

The faint luminance of the gardens at night was a sight of unearthly beauty. The twinkling lights of the stars above were echoed in the aura of the butterflies that dotted the inner sanctum in pale yellow and white lights, their own glow touching the delicate wings in pearl and champagne.

The dove-grey skin of the four-armed spider youkai who had come to the gardens was touched with its own pearlescent hue, the glow lightening around him as the curious butterflies came to alight on his form and touch his expressionless face with delicate wings.

Extending his palms, the brightest of them landed on the surface, their feet a soft whisper across his fingers. Bending his head, he whispered to them, a humming sound of haunting sibilance. Wings fluttered and the unearthly radiance of small figures brightened and dimmed with understanding.

Slowly, he raised his arms, hands spread out so that the small youkai, nightly messengers only by requested aid, could alight on the soft breeze that circled through the star-lit sanctuary. Wings flashed as they beat a quick rhythm, their soft music spread across the garden that was held enthralled in the magical radiance of their youkai aura.

Small, but strong, they would seek out the Lord of the Western Lands, delivering their message. Carrying their own light through the darkness, they would span the world, seeking him in the night...

..................................

"That (witch) needs beating." Katashi's snarl was low and ominous as the kaze youkai slowly departed the quiet clearing deep in the woods.

Koga raised a black brow in amusement. "You could try."

Yellow eyes---dog pee eyes---narrowed with contention. "You think I couldn't?"

Koga crossed his arms, taking up a casual stance. Katashi was acting like a brat. "I said, ookami, that you could try."

Claws extended meaningfully as the fury flashed red across those dog pee eyes. "She won't be able to escape me for much longer."

His other black brow quirked up at that in amused question. What made that stupid ookami think Kagura would ever change her mind about him? He'd seen that hard look of pure loathing in the witch's eyes, and she wasn't one to change her mind easily, once set.

Yellowy pools of dog pee widened, and Katashi actually barked a short laugh, annoying the hell out of Koga, who couldn't see any reason for the damn upstart to be amused.

'Stinking dog-turd---'

"You don't know, do you?" Katashi barked again, REALLY getting under Koga's fur this time.

"What the hell are you getting at, ookami?" He growled, blue eyes narrowed.

"Don't you smell her scent, or do you have snot blocking your nose?" Katashi's canines flashed at his own bad joke.

The growl grew, a warning. He was not to be played a fool by stupid upstarts who thought---

He stilled suddenly, having taken in a good long breath, and caught it---sharp and slightly spicy, the faint hint of Naraku's own hated stench over-ridden by the kaze youkai's freshening fragrance. Her scent had changed, slowly and not really registering on his conscious mind that it had.

She had, at one time, reeked of Naraku. It was his essence that had created her, had fueled her existence. But the dark hanyou had completely separated the witch from him when he returned her her heart, and she had become more and more what she truly was created from...the Wind.

The Wind had a strange scent, a mixture of many different ones, a changing scent that spoke to him of fresh gusts off the sea, faint breezes up from a flowered field, icy hints from the upper mountains, secretive winds passing through dark, lonely forests...

He inhaled deeply, wanting to name all of the different varieties of that interchanging scent. But that wasn't what really made him freeze in place. Under that strange combination of the awakening kaze youkai's own essence, was the spicy fragrance that lingered, making his eyes flash for a moment with a more primitive urgency, a tantalizing fragrance that made him want to---

'DAMN.'

Katashi grinned knowingly. "I don't have to wait much longer, Koga. The wolves tell all, don't they?"

Icy fire glared at him in a hardened blue stare. 'Damn, but he's right.' He should have seen it, should have understood why all his damn wolves were sniffing around the wind witch all the damn time, why his men were all fawning over her, so bent on pleasing her and making her smile for them.

'DAMN.'

Katashi smirked. "I don't even think she knows, which is the beauty of it. Won't she be in for a shock."

Koga growled. 'Lay one claw on her, you bastard, and I'll---'

What the hell was he thinking? Kagura wasn't one of his clan. She was an unclaimed kaze youkai who could more than defend herself. He didn't have any business interfering with nature.

But...

She had saved Ginta. 'Damn.' And his men. 'Damn.' And she didn't deserve an overbearing tyrant who wouldn't be much better than Naraku, when all was said and done.

'DAMN.'

.............................

Three nights he battled for the taijiya's life, and by the end of it, even he was hollow-eyed and dull with fatigue.

'Damn it, anyway.'

She was hot and cold by turns, the fever and the chills wracking through her weak body until he wanted to tear his hair out with frustration. He had always been one to face something with fists and claws, and he didn't like the creeping sense of helplessness that ate at him every time her condition worsened.

"Come on, damn it." He growled over her, sponging the sweat from her body with cool water from the stream nearby.

Her crisis came, and he spent nearly ten straight hours with her, keeping the fever from claiming her life with the few tools he had and the single-minded determination that would drive him to do all that he could in any situation, however bleak, to continue fighting until the very end...

At first, his touch had been tentative, the tell-tale flush of embarrassment on his ruddy cheeks and deliberate averting of amber eyes a sign of how nervous he was with her. But as the long days and nights of her illness continued, he became familiar with her body, intimately familiar, and he was no longer apprehensive as he bathed the sweat from her skin, or wrapped the thick woolen blankets over her to keep in the warmth as he held her in his arms, seeking to share his heat and willing with all his being that she fight, and live...

Kirara's continued presence seemed to reassure him. The neko's faith never waned, and she distracted him, sometimes, when he fell into the dark moodiness over the taijiya's inability to throw off the sickness of her body.

It was Kirara's happy mew that awakened him from the numbing exhaustion that had him slumped against the wall across from Sango's sick-bed. Mentally groaning, he forced his tensed muscles to move and obey him, and he crawled over to where the neko was pawing at the taijiya, who was again tossing in the throes of another nightmare.

Her fevered dreams had disturbed her rest---and his---more times than he could count, and often it was only HIS presence, as he held her and soothed the night terrors that haunted her, that would calm her down and allow her to fall into peaceful slumber. His right hand immediately went to cup her forehead, testing for her temperature in a motion that had become unconscious by familiarity, he had done it so many times over the past three days.

His claws curled in surprise, for even though the woman's skin was sweaty under his seeking, her temperature was actually cooling to normal, not chilling into clamminess---a downward spiral he had grown to dread. A surge of relief almost left him giddy, and swept away the numbness from his mind. Grabbing up the closest bucket, he almost tore the bamboo curtain off of its ties in his hurry to fill up the damn thing with cool water from the stream that---of course---ran through the farthest side of the village from Sango's hut.

He cleaned the dried sweat from her skin carefully, pausing to check the original would that had caused all this crap in the first place, and fangs gleamed white in the dim light of the dying day as he saw that it had healed nicely. In another day there would not even be the trace of a scar...

Not that the warrior-woman didn't have scars enough. He had been shocked, and daunted, by how many covered the girl's body. For one so young, she had been through a lot. Not to mention the starred one on her back that made his claws curl into his palms with rage---not at her, no, but for the pain it must have caused, and the reminder it must be to her.

He respected those scars. They were badges of strength and survival.

Pulling a clean yukata from the pile he had shoved in one corner---thank the holies Kirara had actually found clean clothes in many of the cots, slightly dusty but useable, he didn't even want to ever think about having to do LAUNDRY, and had tossed the dirty linen out the doorway and kicked it under a brush on one of his countless journeys back and forth to the wide stream for fresh water---and wrapped Sango in it. Cocking his ears forward, he caught the soft, slow beat of her strong heart. The pale cheeks were actually flushed a little, and not with fever, but with returning health. She slept deeply now, the sleep of recovery.

Wrinkling his nose at the smell of her futon, he didn't want to lay her back down in that mess. Kirara hadn't been so lucky in finding useable blankets as she had in clothing. Fatigue was nipping at him again, and he finally just slumped back down against the wall, holding the girl close in his arms. She was like a limp doll, and he hauled her legs over to curl across his lap. Kirara gurred and mewed over the heavy fabric of his haori, which he had discarded three nights ago and not donned since. The neko managed to drag it across the few feet of space so that he could lean over slightly, trying not to jostle the sleeping taijiya, and hook it up neatly with one claw. Using his left hand to brace the girl against him, he used his right to tug the familiar red fabric over and around her, tucking her feet into its warmth.

Sango sighed against him, and his arms flexed over her, holding her frail body protectively against his even as the girl settled down, her breaths evening out into serene repose. Kirara came and curled up on a piece of his haori behind Sango's covered feet, and the last thought he had before lowering his head and closing his eyes to sleep as well were laced with grumbling irritation.

'Damn it, that stupid cat better not get white hair all over my Fire Rat robe...'


	47. Chapter FortySix: Madness

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.

WARNING: Language, some dark imagery and (to be cautious) lime. Word edit on 

Chapter Forty-Six (Madness)

"HIDEKI!"

His summoning bellow didn't bring---at first---the result he wanted. His volume had been loud enough to shake up the birds in the trees a ways off---making them fly out with a flap of angry wings, chittering and cawing their distress as they flew off like their tail-feathers had caught fire.

There was no similar disturbance coming from inside the old fart's cave.

Growling his impatience, Koga stomped inside the damn rock.

"Where the hell are you, Crack-Tooth!"

There was a darker shape moving in the shadowed interior. "Damn it, boy! Can't you put a muzzle on it and let an old youkai get some sleep?"

Eyes narrowing, Koga waited for his keener sight to adjust from the brightness of the waning day outside to the the inner blackness of Hideki's unlit cave. He could barely make out the old fart who was couched on furred pelts in the back.

His sight returned as he waited for the healer to unbend his old bones out of bed and come closer to where he stood at the cave mouth, blocking the dwindling daylight.

"You could move, puppy." Hideki grumbled at him, his raspy voice filled with more gravel than normal. "I need to see to make a light."

Fangs flashed. "You can see fine, you old grouch."

There were more grumbles out of the old fart, who finally snapped out a light from scraping one of his special sticks against the rocky wall and, carefully holding the jumpy flame, lit both torches that stood bracketed on either side of the oblong cave.

Hideki took his time dragging one of his furs off of his bed and carefully putting it on one side of the cold fire-pit. He didn't offer Koga one, but the ookami youkai had no problem with snatching up a pelt of his own and sprawling on it across from the old healer.

Hideki eyed him with smug amusement, and startled the hell out of him with his blunt words. "So you finally noticed."

Koga's thick brows came crashing down as his ice blue eyes spat fire at the old fart. "You knew, and said NOTHING?"

"Quit howling, boy." Hideki growled back. "You want every damn grey wolf to hear you?"

'You're just asking for it, old man...'

His voice quieter, but holding no less irritation, Koga demanded again, "Why the hell didn't you let me know?"

"Well..." Hideki scratched the back of his grey head in a habit that spoke more of Hakkaku than Ginta. "I didn't know until a few days ago."

Koga growled. 'A few DAYS ago?'

"And what would it help, really?" Hideki shrugged. "The wolves know instinctively, and I'm sure some of the older wolf-brothers do too. It's been a long time since we had a female---youkai---in our caverns. Most of the young whelps wouldn't understand until the Gathering started."

"What about her? Shouldn't she know?" Koga didn't like the old man's reasoning, but the old fart surprised him by his next words.

"I don't know if she should. She's not one to like losing control, you know. She's been through some rough handling, that one. She's strong, she survived, but the news that she's going into heat would just unsettle her and make her afraid of it."

Koga glared. "She should know, though. She should be given the choice, damn it."

Hideki snorted. "What choice is there when the blood's is up? It's whoever's strongest, whoever's fastest, you know that. Whoever can defeat the others and claim her."

Koga growled, but remained silent. Hideki was right.

"She doesn't deserve it."

"Deserve what?" A bushy grey brow shot up.

Koga heaved a long sigh of irritation before biting out, "Katashi."

Hideki growled low in his throat. "So that's why that foul upstart has been hanging around. He wants her, does he?"

Koga gave a sharp nod, his blue eyes icy with the thought.

Hideki eyed him for a long moment. "Why the hell do you care, whelp?"

Gods, the old fart was asking for it!

"She saved my men." He reminded the old healer sharply. "And that---wolf---is too hard for her. She'd be better off with anyone else."

"You thinking of trying? You hang around here long enough, boy, and you'll get caught up in it."

Koga growled with frustration. Hideki was right. When a female went into heat, every damn wolf in close vicinity went with her, whether he wanted to or not. Ookami nature asserted itself, and a youkai had no choice in the matter.

"I'm not looking myself. I already have a woman."

Hideki snorted, showing just what he thought of THAT. "A ningen."

"A miko." Koga returned with a warning bite of menace.

Hideki's gaze turned fierce. "You think that miko would make a strong alpha's mate and be able to stand up for herself in the rough life of a wolf pack?"

Koga growled. Even old Hideki shouldn't dare to question him or his choices.

Hideki scowled, wisely saying no more on THAT matter. Abruptly changing subjects, the old ookami asked bluntly, "So what do you plan to do then? Warn her?"

Koga let go of his fury; the old Crack-Tooth thought too much of himself, simply because he had been around longer than anyone else...

"Yes." He growled. "I'll warn her in the morning, and give her a choice. If she wants to stay, and find a mate, so be it. If she doesn't, I'll take her off and dump her where no damn wolf, including that walking dog-turd Katashi, could find her. Either way, I'm off for the hills. I'm not risking falling into THAT mess when she does go into heat."

Hideki just snorted, showing his dubious opinion of THAT plan.

Koga just glared. "She could just settle down with one of the clan. Ginta, maybe. Or Hakkaku."

"You think they have the strength to fight off Katashi?" Hideki demanded, his voice rough with cynicism.

"You never know."

Again, Hideki just snorted.

................................

Koga had taken the time out to really watch the wolves---and youkai---who were crowding around Kagura's chosen lair. Now that he was aware of it, he couldn't believe he had missed all the signals. It had just never occurred to him that that damn female would have the claws to go into heat. She hadn't ever done so before, why should she now?

One idea Hideki had advanced was that the wind witch's body had never really functioned correctly until her heart had been returned to her. The natural cycles of a youkai female had been put on "hold", so to speak, as her heart had been, and had never manifested until she was made whole. The continued stress of major wounds had twice put it off, perhaps, though he didn't buy that one too much.

Whatever it was, the problem had just been dumped in his lap, and he couldn't ignore it now.

'Damn it all.'

He'd spent a long, sleepless night over the dilemma, and couldn't think of anything better than just telling her outright and letting her decide what she wanted to do about it. You couldn't stop nature, but you could avoid it. Watching the way the wolves kept growling and snarling among themselves, breaking out, occaisionally, in snapping attacks, told him all to clearly that he would be warning her just in the nick of time to do something about it.

He'd had to use his powerful fists quite a few times during the night, breaking up fights among the furballs, laying out on both sides. He had even had to cuff a few grey ones, who were audacious enough to try and get closer to the wind witch's cave. He had snarled angrily at Katashi, who had watched him from afar with a knowing glint in his dog-pee eyes but did nothing to defend his scavengers from Koga's heavy fists.

'Damn arrogant bastard...'

He'd made the rounds, growling over the half-assed attention that his own youkai, set to guarding his land against any stupid northern filth getting out of line, were putting into their jobs. He'd knocked a few heads around, impatient with their distraction, but damn, he could hardly blame them. Now that he recognized it for what he was, her faint scent seemed to be lingering every damn where. No wonder his men were distracted...

'Damn it all.'

It was just as the early rays of the sun were first creeping across the browning crags of his rocky lands that he finally made his way to the kaze youkai's caves. Normally, she would not arise this early, but he didn't dare waste another moment in waking her ass up and letting her know. The faint aura of spicy allure had grown during the night, and he knew he didn't have much time...

Snarling his way through the damn mob who scrambled out of his way with tailed-up yelps only after he kicked them out of it, and came immediately back to fill in the space after he walked past, he stopped for a moment outside the darkened mouth of her own cave. Usually the wolves were piled up in there as well, the lucky few who could fit lining the small oval-shaped cavern from wall to wall and almost burying her small frame under their furry bodies like living blankets. Gods, how could he not have noticed it all?

There were no wolves in there now. Not a single one.

There was a howl in the distance, and everything froze in anticipation as that call came eerily on the chill morning breeze.

'DAMN.'

He'd run out of time.

..................................

She had spent a restless night alone, her dreams troubled with the nagging wisps of phantom nightmares soaring across her sleeping mind like haunting ghosts of the past. She could not tolerate the thought of anyone near her, and had sent her nightly escort of wolfish friends packing with a snarling rage that made her feel slightly guilty. She missed them, a little, after she had ordered their abrupt exit, and had spent a lonely night wishing she could summon them back and curl herself among the soft fur and warm bodies, cradled in and among them like a child. Her dreams had not been troubled in months---perhaps it had been their presence that had warded off the nightmares that disturbed her rest.

Whenever she thought of calling them to her side, though, the restless frustration came again, the unknown source of seeded anger irritating her even more, and she would grit her teeth and turn over on her side, willing the anger away.

It had worked in the past, but why did it not seem to now?

She was warm, too warm. Feverish. Hot. Angry. Hungry...

She sneered at herself, loathing the anger and strange desires that washed over her. 'What is wrong with me? Why am I feeling so...'

She could not even name what troubled her, what feelings were spilling over her. 'I cannot stand this!' She screamed in her mind, claws digging into the soft fleshy part of her palms. She wanted to hit something, claw someone, seek the warm blood of enemies under her talons...

That disgusting thought was utterly ridiculous. 'I am Kagura.' She snarled to herself, wanting to identify who she was in this sea of unknown emotion that broiled and raged inside of her.

Her senses were heightened, raw. She felt itchy and trapped, confined. She longed for the freedom of the wind, longed to flee from this madness that was trying to consume her...

An icy shaft of dread shot down her spine. 'Naraku. Could he be the cause of this...this...unease? This madness? Could he be trying to consume my mind and make me crazed?'

No...gods, please, not that...

Fear gripped her soul, and she jumped back into a defensive pose as she sensed a Presence outside of her cave, standing at the mouth of it. 'Where are my wolves? Where is my protection?'

Why was she seeking them? They set her nerves on edge, they disturbed the peace of her mind, she didn't want them! She couldn't stand their proximity right now!

'What is happening to me?'

Her eyes glowed with the deepest crimson, and she snarled as that Presence stepped inside, her fingers curling, the knife-points of her claws extending in fury at the intrusion.

'What is it? Who are you? What do you want?'

What was happening to her?

Her scrambling mind caught the icy fire of light blue eyes narrowed on her, the wide expanse of a hard chest revealed by breasted armor, the long length of rippling muscle that flexed and froze under each step of his powerful legs. Strong arms crossed over his chest, and he stood there, tall and arrogant...dominating...male...

'Leave me ALONE.' She cried with one part of her mind, while another ached to be closer to him...subdued...overcome...

'I am KAGURA.' She spat at that alien thought. She was the Wind! She would never be subdued by anyone, she would not allow it!

"What is happening to me?" Her eyes were open and staring, wide with fear and anger and the madness of her blood. She had not realized she had whimpered that weak thought aloud, and she growled after it, angry over her weakness. She was not weak...

"Kagura." His voice stirred something in her. She wanted to cling to it, claw away from it, run from and run to....

She recognized his voice, and she cut through the madness that would wash away her soul and managed to utter his name in a hoarse whisper of faint sound. "Koga."

That single word of recognition was a thread of sanity she could cling to in a world of sudden chaos. She held tightly to it, and the glow diminished slightly from her eyes. A spark of awareness returned to them, although she could barely keep the consuming frenzy at bay for long.

She must warn him...she must warn the others...her wolves could not die from Naraku's evil plot...she was certain that the dark hanyou was reaching out with long claws to still the life within her with consuming madness, hoping to use her to wreak havoc on the clan...

"Something is wrong..." Her short, gasping breaths were harsh to her own ears. Her heart fluttered in her chest, which heaved with her desperation. "With me....Naraku..."

The ookami clan leader stiffened at that name, his blue eyes fire and ice.

"I think he is trying to...kill me...take control...I don't know if...I...can resist..."

'Help me...'

The fire diminished, and there was a flicker of...pity?...in the deepening blue depths.

"It is not Naraku." He said, his voice deep with odd intonations.

He was wrong. What else could it be? This madness was trying to consume her...Naraku's madness...

She must make him understand the threat she was to them all!

"No...you must understand...he is crazed...he desires your death...your Jewel shards...he would use me to kill you...all of you...keep them away from me! I would not hurt them! They are my brothers!" Her eyes closed with the sudden knowledge of it. They WERE her brothers, she did not want to hurt them.

"Please." She whispered desperately, the tears sparking in the corner of her tightly closed eyes.

"Kagura." His voice was sharp, and she opened her eyes, her fury glittering crimson blood in their depths.

'He will not listen to me!'

"You must listen." He told her, his voice deep and commanding. "Naraku has nothing to do with this."

"You don't understand..." Her chest heaved with despair. He must, he must understand! The madness would not be reined in for long, and then there would be no chance to warn him...to warn any of them...

There was a scramble at the mouth of her cave, and Hideki's graveled voice suddenly broke in with his usual bluntness.

"You are going into heat, girl. Nothing else."

She froze as her mind took in those harsh words.

'I do not understand...'

"What do you mean?" She whispered, her eyes wide pools of fear.

Hideki growled under his breath with impatience. "Do you know nothing, girl? You are youkai! Your cycle has come!"

Her nostrils flared in fear. What did he mean, her cycle? What if she were youkai? What was he trying to tell her?

"What do you mean?" She repeated, dreading his response.

The old wolf's eyes were compassionate. "You really don't know, do you, girl?"

Kagura's fearful gaze traveled to Koga's, who remained impassive, his usually expressive face frozen into stillness. He watched her, though, and waited.

Hideki came up beside her, and extended a gnarled hand to lay it comfortingly on her shoulder. She flinched under the contact, her skin tingling and burning, her nerves raw.

'What is wrong with me?' She wailed inside, afraid of the knowledge.

"You're youkai, girl. Eventually, you would go into heat. All female youkai do, as their blood and cycle determines. Your time has come."

"But what do you mean?" She cried out desperately. "I don't understand! What is wrong with me?"

He patted her shoulder, and she tried not to flinch away from the kind gesture. "You cannot fight it, girl. The urge to mate is strong."

Mate? What did he mean, mate? She did not wish to mate! Horrible memories washed over her, awful memories of Naraku's cruel rape of her flesh, her mind closing down under the ravaging appetite of his penchant for torture and pain...

"No..." Her eyes grew unfocused, the fear and dread consuming her.

'Please, no...'

"You cannot deny the call of your blood, girl. Your natural instincts will soon take over, and you cannot fight them." Hideki's grip tightened on her shoulder and jostled her gently.

The blood thundered in her ears, and she shook with terror. A faint sound came from outside of the darkened closeness of her cave, the howl of a wolf penetrating her consciousness and making the madness within answer...

'No...no...please...no...'

"Do not deny yourself, girl. You could be lost to the madness of your kaze nature, forever. Do not fight it. Join with it, and you will survive it." Hideki growled at her, his eyes concerned for her soul.

"I...can't..." She said brokenly, her red eyes like washed jewels with the tears that, even now, she refused to shed.

"You must." His voice was hard and unrelenting.

Another wolf cried lonely and desperate outside.

She bowed her head, her body trembling with awakening awareness. The turmoil of frenzied madness was rising up, demanding she bow to it, her nature.

"Come." That harsh command came from Koga, who had stood silent through Hideki's revelation. She kept her eyes down, her manner lost. She could not fight it. She could only survive it...

Under Hideki's gentle prodding, she took the first step forward. Dully, she followed after the ookami chief, her eyes on the rocky ground under her bare feet. Everything was overwhelmingly close and sensitive...the rough ground that scraped under her toes, the feel of Hideki's calloused hand on her shoulder, guiding her outside of the caves...

Her nostrils flared at the overwhelming scent of ookami, youkai and furred, and she paused just outside the cave mouth, her head jerking up and her eyes widening into frightened crimson pools as she realized that they were all there, staring at her, watching her with an intensity that sent a strange awareness flooding through her body and freezing her mind in overwhelmed terror.

Numerous eyes were on her, staring and glowing, the madness in her mind glaring back at her from the glinting eyes of multiple ookami. The small hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, and her flesh goose-bumped with chilled awareness of the consuming lust in their eyes. Brightening gold on four-legged brethren and streaks of scarlet glowing from the penetrating gaze of youkai brothers...she could not stand it, she could not...

Her red eyes swept desperately to Hideki, who would not meet her glance. The old wolf was even staring at her, making her shiver under the hardness of his gaze before shaking himself out of it and squeezing her shoulder tight. His harsh voice whispered in her ear, trying to ease her fear.

"Soon you will not see it, girl. There will only be the chase..."

What did he mean? What was going to happen to her? She wanted to cry out with the unknowing frustration of it all, claw her way to freedom and run like the Winds she was formed from. Her blood raced with the desire of the thought, and she was almost consumed with it, deliberately unaware of the countless eyes that watched her every move.

There was a dark growl beside her, as Hideki warned off the tall youkai who approached her with too much familiarity.

Kagura froze as a smug whisper heated across her ear, making her skin crawl and her mind scream in denial.

"You will be mine, kaze (witch)."

'No!'

She hissed at him, her claws curling and her eyes heating with fury. "Never!" She denied him. She would never submit to that arrogant dog!

"You have no say in the matter." His smug whisper made her blood boil, and she spun around, freeing herself from Hideki's grasp. Low growls were echoed around her, and she snarled at him.

"NEVER!"

His eyes were glowing with a reddish light across the blazing yellow glow of them. He inhaled her scent, deliberately stepping nearer, his fangs flashing. She felt suddenly afraid, and stepped back away---

And into the hard expanse of another male's chest. She jumped, but strong hands gripped her upper arms in an immovable grip. She shivered, the fear eating inside of her. The growling descant of the angry ookami who watched overwhelmed her senses. The turmoil of her blood rose up, wanting to swallow her mind in consuming madness...

"The Gathering has not started, Katashi. Return to your place." The harsh voice was of Koga, and she shivered under the awakened sense of that deep, rich voice. She desired...she desired none of this...

The grey wolf-brother's smile broadened with a knowing look. "Soon enough, and she will be mine."

'No...' She did not realize that she had whispered that plea of denial, but Koga stiffened behind her.

"That remains to be seen." There was a hard edge to the ookami's voice, and she felt his claws clench slightly against her pale skin.

"Are you challenging me, Koga?" There was a dangerous light in the ookami's yellow eyes, the red glow expanding.

"You are hardly worth my time, northern dog. I could out-run you any day." The deep rumble behind her made her shiver in reaction.

Red streaks flashed through the grey wolf's eyes. "Only because you have the help of your Jewel shards, cub. Without them, you are nothing."

His claws now dug into her skin, bruising it, and she could not hold back the soft whimper of pain that escaped her. Immediately, he eased his grip, and she could not hear their growling speech as she became aware of the slow circles his thumbs made over the spots of her bruising, unconsciously easing them. She shivered, for quite another reason, and her mind screamed at her as the unknown feeling of desire washed over her anew.

'No...no...no...'

"You seek her yourself, then." Katashi's eyes narrowed as she became suddenly aware that they still snarled at each other from over her bent head.

"No." His hands tightened slightly, and her eyes widened with a strange sense of hurt outrage. Why would he not seek her? She was youkai, she was female, he was youkai, and male...

'I am Kagura, and he is Koga. There could never be anything between us!' She told her more primitive nature severely, her eyes glowing with anger.

There was a sudden cold smile behind her, and the icy blue eyes flashed. "I will just make sure YOU will not claim her."

Katashi snarled. "You can try, easterner. But only a dishonorable bastard would flaunt an unfair advantage!"

Koga actually let her go, stepping away from her. Kagura nearly collapsed, but Hideki was there to support her weakness. As the two ookami youkai had argued over her, the others had gathered in, and she was besieged by the sensation of being constricted and closed off. She wanted to escape them, to flee their knowing eyes, their bated breath of anticipation.

Something gleamed bright pink and white out of the corner of her eye, and she turned her head sharply to track that light. Koga had calmly, deliberately, pulled the Jewel shards from his fur-clad calves and held them in his palm, his blue eyes darkening with malice as Katashi's lips thinned.

"Keep these safe." Koga growled at Hideki, who opened his gnarled palm to receive the sparkling Shikon shards. His blue eyes never left Katashi's, who glistened blood-red with challenge.

Hideki's other hand tightened on Kagura's shoulder, and she jerked under it. Katashi stepped forward slightly, his flashing fangs and the knowing gleam in his blazing eyes making her flinch away even as the madness sucked away at her resistance.

'No...' She still tried to fight it. She would never consent to him...never submit...she was the Wind...she would leave these petty demons behind her...they thought her weak, easily caught...she would show them...she was strong...she would escape their raging lust...she was stronger than any of them...none would catch her, tame her, take her...

There was a stir through the watching crowd of ookami, nostrils expanding as they took in her spiked scent. The madness was filling and surging through her, heating her blood to boiling fury....they would never...never...

Eyes glowed, red and yellow, gleaming in the frenzied madness that filled her vision. She did not realize that Hideki's hand had fallen from her arm, that she stood alone and glowing in the center of them. Her eyes were vacant of awareness, the blood color glowing with rubied fire. Her skin glistened with a white light, her demonic aura expanding and growing as the Winds claimed her mind and swallowed her senses with their primal demand. A wind swooped down, stirring the long ends of midnight hair, making it dance sensuously on the breeze. The fire grew within her, claiming her soul as possession and turning her desire to one goal...freedom...

'I am the WIND.' She screamed at them, her nature calling through. The ookami surrounding her parted slightly, allowing her an avenue of escape. She snarled, eyes glittering, and defied them to approach. She would tear them limb from limb if any dared touch her! She would not submit! Never submit! She was FREE!

She was up and away, her small feet carrying her away from them. The ookami stood frozen for a moment, the suddenness of her departure stunning them, before with howls and roaring calls of awakening, they scrambled after, one goal fixed in their minds...

..............................................

A/N: Hmm, is there a lemon in the near future? O.O

Sorry for the long author's note, but I'm behind in replying to my email and will be for another few days. This is just to say thanks for all the awesome support.

Special thanks to Vyncent, who ALWAYS keeps me brimming with new ideas and revelations, AmyF. and Kilala81, who keep me rofl (rolling on floor laughing), Belledaynight for upping the hentai, Fairia13 for some great ideas on Sango & InuYasha in the last chapter and in the near future, Silver Fang and Tsuki Yume for spurring me on (wounded snails...lol) with updates, Ice Flakes for wondering when Kagura and Kouga would be hooking up (hope this chappie defined "Gathering"), Majo: how SesshouMaru decides to spell his name is beyond this Fate's ability to argue (I wanna live a little while longer...). Puffin: In answer to your question, Kagome is roughly two/three months along by this chapter. Diva, great insight on Kagome (zipping lips .), Kura, I'm glomping my wall-scroll of Sessy as well...dreamy sigh, Striking Falcon...LOL on Katashi, and Jasmine Fields...grin. Thank you for the supportive reviews Lavender Valentine, Neo Neko Youkai, Bbrat, Sweets 427, Pam, Shedevil, and Crumpled Paper. Take care and next two chappies are being edited now!


	48. Chapter FortySeven: Freed

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha...sob...sniffle...sigh...

A/N: Whew! Finally done. Hard chapter to write, hope you like the result! This is the limey, R-rated version for ff (dot) net. If you prefer lemons, you can read the NC17 version on aff (dot) net (under YoukaiFate) and A Single Spark (Fate). A few thanks: Tsuki Yume for your startling email/review that opened my eyes and made me utterly change this lemon and where I was going with it, Vyncent for encouragement and editing (mucho huggos), Fairia13 for some awesome steely references and wonderful inspiration, and Kilala81 for Hentai Reconstruction...lol. Side note: Amy F's web site, animedefiance (dot) com, has been reveamped and is now back online. Yay! Love it, Amy!

WARNING: LIME SERVED! SOME LANGUAGE (Edited on ff (dot) net.) AND DARK IMAGERY! No one under 17 please! You have been warned!

Chapter Forty-Seven (Freed)

She was fast, damn fast.

He would have never thought she could be that damn fast.

It did make it easier, though.

Most of the ookami, especially the four-legged wolves who were caught up in the wild emotion of it all, would not be able to keep up with her. They would fall, enervated but unharmed, and slowly their blood would cool, eventually sleeping off their fatigue. Many of the two-legged brothers would fail as well, their ookami nature slowly ebbing under the return of their youkai control as the sparking call of her own scent diminished. The compulsion of their blood would drive them on until the ones who did not keep up with her or were wounded in snarling battles over position and proximity would fall over in exhaustion, to dream happy little wolfish dreams with dumb smiles on their stupid faces.

He growled to himself. What a damn inconvenience it all was. The pack was vulnerable right now. There was nothing that could disrupt a Gathering, once begun. They were all as mindless as the wolves they called to their side as companion and brother.

This would be too damn convenient a time for Naraku to attack...

He snarled. He had to maintain his distance, ignore the overwhelming call to his ookami blood for more than just the reason of making sure that cocky dog-turd Katashi didn't get Kagura. He owed her that, at least, and he owed his clan the ability of his strong determination to keep seperate, to keep his more primal nature leashed under the control of his youkai soul.

Katashi might be an ignorant bastard, not even thinking of his clan's safety in the face of his selfish desires to claim the kaze female who had dared to defy him.

'Stupid mongrel.'

Light blue eyes narrowed on the tell-tale signs of combat. Fur and blood streaked the thinning trees beyond. He spied the grey-furred youkai, one dropped from the fight, the other limping off after the others who had left them behind. Damn northerners with their damn hormones...

He picked up the pace. It had been a while since he had run unaided by the power of the Shikon shards jammed into his legs. He really didn't need them, he was strong enough on his own. He just wasn't one to waste an opportunity, and those damn shards had proven an invaluable aid in the past.

Katashi and his damn arrogant smirk. 'Call ME a bastard, will he?'

He'd rearrange that damn wolf's face and take pleasure in seeing him howl out of the back of his black spiked head when he pushed his nose inside out with one fist.

Grinning at the thought, he sped up.

.................................

The blood pounded in her ears, and she felt as if her feet were no longer touching the ground. The Wind wrapped around her spirit and took her soaring away with it.

She was no longer Kagura, she was no longer contained by the fears and desperation that plagued her. She just was, and existed in the moment, the run, the freedom, the escape...

'None will tame me!'

I am the Wind...

.................................

Her scent was growing stronger.

'Damn.'

His eyes glanced across the trail of fallen ookami who lay spent in her wake. From the pattern, she had played with them. He almost smiled with pride for it. She would lead them a merry chase. She was a strong one, he had to give her that.

The wolf who did manage to claim her would have tested steel at his side, and be the better for it.

The spark of allure was threading through him, igniting his own blood. His ookami nature snarled with it, wanting to be freed to join in the hunt. He was the fastest, the strongest, the best, he could take her...

His youkai will was stronger, and embraced the ookami blood, tightening his control. He would not submit to that mindless compulsion. He was determined to remain unaffected by the primitive urges that would drive him into the challenge, the Gathering.

The scent was intensifying, the call to his blood racing through him.

He was getting too close.

'Damn it all.'

He had to maintain his control...or fall to it. He did not want that...

'Why not?'

Where the hell did that thought come from?

He growled softly to himself as his eyes caught the creeping movement of youkai in the trees dead ahead...

...........................

The Wind was in a playful mood. It dove and danced and wove among the ones who followed it, seeking after it. But the Wind could not be caught, could not be tamed, could not be touched. It was free. Free to dance, free to run, free to live...

The ookami were jealous rivals for her affection. They snarled and fought among themselves when she drove them together, striving against each other to get closer to her.

Foolish ookami.

She would have played with them all. But they sought to chain her, and the Wind could not be controlled. IT was wild and free, soaring above the earth, the mightiest of force, and the softest of whispers.

She whirled and danced, laughing and calling to them, and when she tired of their company, she fled them with skipping steps, her mocking laugh a mere breath of sound pulling them after her...

Weak. They were weak. They bloodied themselves in battle over her, and part of her---the demon---delighted in the blood. It enlivened her, making her feel the strong, slow beat of her own determined heart...living, breathing, FREE.

Many fell, exhausted, as she left them behind. The wolves gave out first, and then their youkai brothers who were weakest. Slowly, their numbers dwindled, and she missed her playmates, slightly. But there were still so many to dance with, to twist out of reaching claws and smile softly at as she whirled away to prance on the air in the sheer joy of it all.

'Come!' She called them. 'Follow!'

Laughing, she increased her speed, so that her feet barely touched the ground. Their desperate cries dwindled on the wind of her passage, and she treasured the feeling of being alone once more. Her playmates were pitiful, she would run, free and lonely, captivated by the Winds...

They surrounded her, filled her, drove her. She was of them, joined and balanced and embracing. The exquisite joy of it flared through her being, the blood thundering in her ears as her arms flung wide to take all of it in...

'Wind!'

The faintest sound came to her from the left, and she stared down in surprise as grasping claws caught the edge of her white sleeve, clutching it with fierce determination. The reddened eyes of the ookami youkai made her blink in astonishment.

What is this?

The youkai male closed his grip, seeking to capture her in his embrace.

Capture her? The Wind could not be caught by mere youkai...

Deep red eyes flashed in anger, the Winds howling their bristling rage across her soul. How dare he touch her? She was the Wind!

But the Wind was forgiving, and she knew he was not for her. She pitied him, poor youkai. He was trying so hard. One hand came up to caress his cheek, and the unknown red eyes widened as the Wind, laughing now, kissed her claws lightly, leaving only the merest scratch. She would not harm her brothers, but she would not be chained, either...

Claws grabbed for the fabric, and she slipped out of it, giggling as the ookami howled in desperation, holding her abandoned robes as he fell to his knees in the dirt, defeated. She danced away, and he was dismissed from her wandering mind...

She could sense them, their presence---once almost overwhelming in numbers, was on the wane. She called them on, wanting to play some more, but she was suddenly tired of the game. The Wind was capricious, it was forever changing. She spun around them, making the remaining youkai clutch together, snarling and fighting against each other, and then she drove through them, scattering them aside and laughing as she left them behind.

Pitifully weak, these earthbound creatures...

She would not be bound. She was free once more to dance, and she abandoned them to soar, her spirit seeking the sun.

She could barely feel the ground beneath her toes, and the long black wave of her hair was lifted off of her back with the breeze of her passage. The winds caressed her bare body, making it tingle and warm with the contact. She felt alive, and free, and untouchable...

Something dark moved alongside, and she smiled, her eyes glowing. A new playmate? He was stronger than the rest, more determined, perhaps, but still not her equal.

He snarled at her, and his claws extended to grasp her in them.

She danced away, her merry laughter making him roar with fury. Foolish youkai. He would anger her, she was not one to---

Sharp claws dug into her arms, and she screamed in outrage. How dare he lay hands on her! How dare he push her down and curl his claws around her throat? SHE WAS THE WIND!

Her blood thundered with rage, and she commanded, 'Release me!'

His coarse laughter grated on her ears, and she bared her fangs at him, snarling. Blood! She wanted his blood on her claws, feel the warmth of his life as she took it from him...

Blood streaked across his cheek, re-opening earlier wounds. He roared furiously, and knocked her down with a powerful fist on her temple. She refused to give into the drowning nausea that tried to claim her from the blow. If she faltered, he would win...

NEVER!

Fangs attacked, and she left more blood on his shoulder. He growled, the yellow eyes blazing into the the red hunger of primal lust. "You are mine, kaze (witch)!" He snarled at her, fist raised to strike her again.

Her knee came up, but he scissored her legs with his own powerful thighs. Her claws dug deep into his chest, trying to force him back and away from her, but he ignored the pain and his larger hands wrapped around her shoulders, pushing her down.

"I'll take you, (witch), now!"

His legs forced hers apart, and she cried out with the mindless rage of her blood in rejecting denial.

'NO!'

The Wind screamed in her mind, and her instincts took over. She called on their power, seeking it as she had once before. Her eyes blazed white fury as her hands opened, claws freeing the power awakening and burgeoning inside her. The Winds tore across her spirit, grasping it within them as their howling rage focused on the youkai who would dare to snatch away her freedom.

'NEVER!'

The ookami howled as white fire lashed between them, and his body was blown back away from her by the force she unleashed. He fell back, limp and dazed, the red bloodied glow receding from his eyes as they blanked to yellow.

The Winds now ruled her, and she glowed with their rage. "DIE!" She screamed, her arms up and calling forth the force once more. Sanity had fled as the powerful Winds consumed her soul, eating away at it, seeking unity once more between them. She would be lost to it forever, but she would see that devil in Hell with her...

"KAGURA!"

She froze, the name meaning nothing, but the strength behind that single word rooting her to the spot. She burned with the Winds that encircled her, trapping her mind within them. She could not confine them, could not stop them, but part of her KNEW that He must not be harmed.

"Stay back!" She hissed, her voice an odd inflection of whispered breezes and roaring gales, a hint of what now held captive her soul.

His eyes were turning, the icy blue fire darkening as streaks of crimson bled across them. He must not loose control...he would be swallowed up as she was...

"Come to me." His voice was deep, commanding, and she shuddered, wanting to. But the Winds roared back, denying him. She would not be tamed! She would be free, and would remain free, even if she must die to do so...

"You cannot die." He growled at her. Had she spoken those thoughts aloud?

Even now, the Winds were whirling and tearing inside of her, seeking to be let free. All would die under their fury, she had no control over them...

"I will not let you die."

Her eyes widened in surprise. Why? Why would he not let the Winds take her? He did not care, he could not care for one such as she...the blood of his brothers, her brothers, on her hands...

::COME.::

His powerful voice echoed in her mind, and she fell beneath the command. 'No...leave me...I am not...'

::COME.::

Her soul shuddered under the onslaught of his command, and she fell to her knees, gasping. Her claws dug into the dirt, and the Winds screamed back at her to go to him, to call them forth once more to blast him aside and release her soul to their keeping...they would be forever one...

'No!'

She could not kill him. He did not deserve it from her...

She fought the Winds and their beating force as they swirled and tore through her mind. 'I am Kagura!' She told them and they hissed back at her, speaking with the whispered roar of their own strange voice.

:You are ours...:

'No!'

"Help...me..." She managed to say, breaking through their control.

He was there, suddenly, his strong hands hauling her up and pulling her against him. The Winds screamed in fury as his body wrapped around hers. She felt the warmth of him, the power he held leashed, even now. Her blood quickened and her heart raced, strange feelings growing inside. She had longed for this, desired to be held captured in his arms...

Captured? Never!

:You are ours...:

"I..." She shuddered, and his hold tightened, anchoring her to him. She let out a soft moan of anguish as the Winds demanded her soul, demanded she leave him behind and become one with them, free forever...

Fangs flashed and the blue eyes reddened with awareness. The ookami nature was unsealed within him, and she shivered in reaction. She did not want to be subdued, taken, used. She had suffered that foul claiming once before...

"Please..." She whispered, and the Winds roared their delight. She was theirs, she could be no other's...

"You are mine." The deep voice cut through the Winds' screaming insistence, and she clung to him, bowing to it.

"Yes..." She whispered against the powerful chords of his neck, her white body engulfed in his larger frame. He would protect her from the Winds that sought her soul. She would submit...

The red blood in his eyes deepened as they narrowed on her. A hard hand came up to sweep the whirling tangle of her black hair aside, exposing the white expanse of her curving neck where it met her shoulder. Her chest heaved as her heart fluttered wildly with fear. Would she be lost forever to his mastery?

She bowed to it, the Winds screeching their rage as her body trembled helplessly against his. The red rush of arousal, the frenzied madness of the mating call, was slowly circling inside of her. She had feared it, and fought it, and nearly lost herself to it. It would drown her...

:You are ours!:

"You are mine!" His mouth opened, and she braced herself. The feel of those fangs sliding into her neck made her stiffen and cry out in anguish...

'Lost...I am lost...'

::Come!::

His voice was now inside of her, awakening her blood and overwhelming the howl of the Winds. She shuddered, desire coursing through her body, rushing up to his embrace as her own life-giving blood welled up to his claiming. She felt the soft brush of his lips, the first touch of a hot tongue sucking up the blood bond with demand.

::Join!::

His command made her tremble. The Winds were receding, leaving the fire of her arising ardor in their midst. She was drowning in the ferocity of his passion, crying out. The Winds had sought to claim her soul, and now He did as well...

'Lost...'

::JOIN!::

Strong fingers were pulling at her mouth, forcing it open. One of her fangs pricked his finger and she jerked as a tiny trickle of livening blood seeped over her tongue. Her eyes widened in shock as the hot longing filled her.

'Blood!'

He pulled her to him, exposing his throat. She had to stand up on the tips of her toes to reach him. She did not understand the gesture, but she felt driven by the desire for more. Long black hair was swept aside from his neck by his own hand, and he held her head like a child's as he drew her mouth to the pulse-point that throbbed with the force of his own life-blood. She kissed the spot, tasting the sweat on his skin, the heat rising from their embrace.

Instinct took over, and her eyes flashed as her mouth opened. Her arms wrapped around him, holding him close as her fangs plunged down, seeking that life-blood for her own. The hot taste of it flooded her mouth, and she would have fallen from him with the sudden weakness of her body if he had not held her up in firm arms, supporting her against him.

She shuddered under the sensation of her awakening youkai blood. His heart thundered in her ears, joining hers in a single, strong rhythm that would unite them forever...

His body curled around hers, softening her fall to the earth. Passion raced through her, igniting her blood in a more primitive need. She could feel him, every inch of muscled strength holding her own figure delicately, as if she were precious and protected. She welcomed him, her small hands sliding up his curving spine to caress the long length of his silky hair. She released her mouth from his neck, though her lips nuzzled across the mark of her claiming.

His own mouth sought out the bitten mark on her neck, and she hissed in her breath as the desire washed through her anew. She felt swept away by the release of her blood, and her body opened for him, welcoming the claim of his embrace as her soul welcomed his into hers...

He was there, his awareness flooding hers, and she could not tell the difference between them. ::Come...:: He called to her, his hot mouth traveling up her neck, his hands pulling her own lips from his throat. She whimpered, wanting more from him. His tongue licked across her bloody lips, tasting his own essence before opening her mouth and inviting her to join him in a more primal expression of their claiming.

Hot fire flared across her soul, and it was she who tightened her hold on him, calling out with her mind to his. 'Join with me...'

As limbs entwined and bodies surrendered, her heart pulsed in time with his, their souls joined and soaring together, freed...

.................................

She was there, in his mind. He was aware of the light touch of her thoughts across his, a soft caress, like a faint breeze whispering over him.

Light blue eyes stared at the woman held close in his arms, and he marveled at the hard steel and warm compassion hidden to the world behind her delicate beauty and the cold withdrawal of defense she had erected against the harsh realities of a cruel existence. Her soul, like a shy flower, had opened itself to him as their passion had taken hold, their mutual claiming thrusting the barriers aside to leave barren their doubts and passions, their thoughts and emotions.

She slept, exhausted, against him. The soft warmth of her breath against his chest was a wonder, he had not believed he could ever feel this surge of protective emotion that tightened across his heart. He lifted one hand to delicately trace the curve of her white cheek, smoothing his thumb over the soft skin. Never had he expected such intensity, such passion.

His wandering fingers touched across her hair, the tangled waves falling like spilled midnight across her back and over his left shoulder and arm that supported her smaller form against his. Her lashes fluttered, and she snuggled closer to him, as if seeking him even in her sleep.

"Kagura..." He said her name with some awe, the respect for her strength of spirit still amazing him. She had survived humiliation and pain like he had never dreamed, her strong will the only thing that kept her sanity intact.

'Hard steel...'

There was a stir from the brush some distance away, and he tensed, a growl rumbling through him. His eyes flashed red anger.

'Damn.'

That stupid dog-turd WOULD choose NOW to wake the hell up. 'Damn him.'

Carefully pulling the sleeping kaze youkai from his embrace, he made certain that she was safely curled and hidden behind the concealment of undergrowth. She whimpered softly as his warmth left hers, and he could sense a hint of lonely desire whispering across his mind---her own thoughts tumbling through the connection of their souls.

His claws smoothed over her soft cheek and down one curling arm in a gentle caress. 'I will return.' He reassured her. A small smile curved her soft mouth for a moment before disappearing, and she sighed in her sleep, pulling his abandoned furs that they lay on closer to her, inhaling his scent.

He grinned toothily at her. 'Time enough for that soon enough.'

He just had to do one thing he had promised himself he could...

Turning his attention on the northern menace, he stalked across the clearing and to the bushes where the kaze youkai had thrown the unfortunate bastard. There was a tell-tale groan from the stirring brush, and he waited, arms crossed and ice-eyed, for the damn wolf to get the hell up.

Another rustle, and he could hear the unmistakable sounds of the fool losing his breakfast. Damn if that didn't sound good. Kagura had done some hard damage with her unleashed force of the Winds.

He grinned at the thought. She was a strong one, all right. She had refused to mate that arrogant dog, and even in the blood-driven oblivion of her consuming nature, she had rejected that conceited dog-turd's determined supremacy.

'Ha! Only got what he deserved!'

The damn youkai was taking too damn long, and he was getting impatient. There was no help for it. He'd have to go in and get him.

Striding forward, one hand snaked down and wrapped around the furred top of the northern leader's dusty armor. Katashi's head lolled for a moment before he reacted to the sudden pull that had him scrambling to his feet in the dirt.

Koga hauled him up, and grinned as those dog-pee eyes blinked and then narrowed with outrage.

"Koga!" Katashi even had the gall to snarl.

Koga's grin grew.

He held the stupid dog-turd up with one hand, his other curling into a nice, solid fist.

"If you ever dare to touch my woman again with your filthy claws, I will knock more than your face in." He growled, letting fly.

...............................

'He can read my mind!'

Her red eyes widened on him, as her thin brows came down in wariness. He flashed her a fanged grin.

"Of course I can."

'How...?'

He snorted, and lifted a single claw to trace the healing wound on her neck. She flinched at the contact, even as her body flared to sudden life and her heart sped up. There was an echo in her soul, as if it were humming...

'I do not understand this.' She felt raw and exposed. His blue eyes were glowing with hunger as they stared at her naked form. She had not realized until then that she was bare of clothing, and she recoiled, hating that look of lust and desire.

She had seen it before in the dark menacing eyes of her hanyou creator...

::I am not Naraku!::

The thought snapped out, slapping across hers even as his blue eyes glared with sudden anger.

'How is he speaking to me this way? I can feel him, his emotions, his desire...'

::Damn kaze witch...::

Fury kindled inside her. How dare he insult her! Stupid brute! Crass bast---

"Do not call me names, woman." He growled, his gaze darkening as his arms crossed over his bare chest. Red eyes widened as she realized he was as naked as she. Her pale cheeks flushed as she took in the evidence of her effect on him.

Even now, he desired her...

::I like your fire.:: His thought had turned caressing, coaxing. Velvety, almost. She distrusted it.

"I am not a (witch) to be taken whenever you want it." She snarled at him, even as her heart softened under the brush of his thoughts. An image flashed through her mind, and she almost choked. It was an image of her, body sprawled and opened, eyes wide with passionate need, her mouth calling forth for him to claim her...

Hot fire shot down her nerves to pool warmth in her belly, bringing a strange yearning to her center. She wanted...

'No!' She flinched away from him, covering her bare breasts from his lusting gaze. Her throat tightened, and the sound of her heartbeat thudded loudly in her ears. Her soul cried softly in longing...

"You are acting foolish, woman." He growled at her, deliberately stepping closer to her.

'I will not allow you to hurt me!' Her mind snapped out even as she whirled away, seeking freedom.

But he was there, dragging her to him. He would not be denied.

"You are mine." He growled in her ear, hauling her close to his hard chest. Her hands splayed across the defined muscles, and her breath quickened as his claws tightened their grip on her upper arms.

She had feared this, feared the ravishment, the mere taking of her flesh by one stronger. Had she not suffered enough? Had she not been forced to lie with---

::Do not think of him! That sick bastard has no place in this!::

How dare he command her? Who was he to---

::I am yours.:: He snarled in her mind, his blood heating. ::And you are mine...::

His mouth came down on hers, and she cringed, expecting the hard crush of his claim. But she shuddered in surprise at the soft caress, the gentle touch of his mouth on hers. He held her in an immovable grip, but his thumbs were circling over her arms, sending strange feelings across her skin.

'What is this...?'

::Desire...:: He answered her confusion, the faint tinge of arrogance on the edge of his words a smirk of knowledge that she wanted to snarl against. But his body was pressing against hers in a way that was distracting. Honey pooled low in her belly, and she flinched now from need, and not fear...

His mouth moved over hers, the pressure increasing minutely on her lower lip, and she wanted to gasp with the sharp stab of desire that pierced across her consciousness. She trembled, not knowing whether to cling or flee. He kept her helpless, imprisoned, and she feared that with all of her soul. But even as that fear crept in, his grip was loosening---slightly---and a warm tongue traced the bow of her lips, requesting, not demanding, entry.

'I do not understand...' She was dazed and confused, the heat of his own thoughts sliding in under her own and curling around her reverie like his hands curved over her arms. Strange images flashed across her mind, wispy half-dreams that made her cheeks flame with the shocking nature of them.

::Open your mouth to me...::

His thoughts had turned cajoling, he had instinctively kept the command from them. She would fear his demand, but she would give him his desire if he sought it.

"Why---" Her impulsive query was cut off by his lips covering hers and silencing her questions. His tongue surged into her mouth, claiming it. She trembled and tried to gasp, but their mouths were knit too closely together for her to even do so. The warmth in her belly grew by slow inches as he skillfully pulled the heat up from her core and gave her his own.

His kiss was soft, exploring, not what she had expected. She had anticipated his attack, not his offering. He explored her mouth, tongues dancing in a duel of growing desire, and invited her to share in it. His mouth opened wider, until his fangs were nibbling on her bottom lip and she almost jumped as a wave of pure hunger washed over her. His hands swept up from her shoulders to cradle her head in his strong palms, his claws tangling in the wavy tangles of black hair that spilled over her shoulders and far down the curve of her back.

He was molten fire to her senses, and she sought that flame, her body falling against his as the wonder of it consumed her soul. She felt as if she was climbing up on the air currents, soaring with the winds, and yet anchored by heated longing to his side. She leaned into him, wanting more. There were astonishing thrills created all over her body---unknown, strange sensations that she did not understand and should fear, but did not.

::Come...:: He invited, drawing her with him. His mouth left hers, and she whimpered, wanting it back. Those sensations...those feelings...the warmth...she needed, wanted...it was a hunger that was consuming her...

'No...' Her mind protested. Not again...no, she did not want to be consumed...

::Come!:: He demanded now, and she jerked upright.

'What am I doing? No! This is not what I want---'

But it was what he wanted, she could feel it like a flaring arrow across her mind, and she paled. His desire was raging in him, burning him up. He wanted to throw her down and take out his lust in fierce claiming---

'No!' She pulled away from him, her red eyes wide with terror.

"Kagura." His voice was low, menacing. Growling.

Flee! She must get away, must escape, or he would---

Powerful arms wrapped over her own, holding her immobile, and her mind whirled with the fear and the desire that rose up to leave her vulnerable, dazed and confused...

'I am not weak!'

She struggled, but he ignored it. She expected him to throw her down and ravish her, like she had seen in his thoughts, like the strong evidence of his desire pressed against her thigh told her he would. But he just held her tight, and pulled her closer. His mouth was trailing its way down her throat, and she thrashed her head, trying to dislodge the hot trail of wet kisses he left along the white column.

"Do not fight me." He growled into her neck, making her gasp as the wet heat of his breath traced across the flaring white symbol of his claim of her as mate.

'I do not understand! Why am I feeling this way?' She cried out, and his hold softened---the merest bit---as his tongue licked across the mating mark. She shuddered, as her mind scattered under the euphonious descant of her soul chiming in answer to that touch.

Her body went limp in reaction, and he pulled her to him, using his own anchored strength to hold her tight as he swept her up into his arm and then down into the soft furs he had abandoned in the heated madness of her youkai blood, when their more primal natures had been free and their minds were not tainted with her confusion and fear.

She shuddered under the drawing of her soul into passion, and the wonder of it made her want to cry out with need. She wanted...she desired...she craved...

........................................

Edited out for R-Rated Version.

.......................................

Koga's awareness returned slowly, the fire slowly dissolving from the glowing light of his blue eyes, and he slid out of her spent body, a whispered kiss sealing the opened mating mark on her neck. Laying beside her limp frame, Koga curled her into his arms, sharing his strength with her, holding her and caressing the dampened tendrils of midnight hair that clung to cheek and forehead. Her eyes were wide and starred with the tears of her passion, like glittering rubies of the deepest color. He could not keep the arrogant smile from his mouth, or the thought of smug knowledge from his mind.

She floated back to reality slowly, on a gentle breeze of quiet peace and glowing warmth that seemed to cover her soul in beautiful music. She stirred slightly, her lashes fluttering closed as she tried to keep that glow within her, treasuring it.

His claws traced the curve of her cheek to soften across the line of her swollen mouth. Her eyes flew open as he touched his own lips to hers, and she looked upon him with dazed wonder.

'I never knew...'

His mouth left hers, and his blue eyes glinted, an arrogant smile creasing his expression. "I know."

Her own eyes flashed, the irritation returning. Why did he have to ruin the moment by acting the ass? Damn him---

::Keep your thoughts to yourself, woman!:: He glared at her in return.

"How can I, you fool?" She hissed, angry at him for stealing the beauty of her awakening with his arrogant conceit. "You marked me!"

"And you marked me as well." He growled. "Do you think I am pleased by that? I never expected that I---" He cut himself off abruptly, pulling away from her.

Her breath hissed in with a rush of fury. His unspoken thoughts were seared across her seething mind. 'Wind witch!'

His back was toward her, his gaze brooding. A swirling image crossed over from his mind to hers, and she sat up, her fists clenching in jealousy as the white mark of their mating burned in white fire against her neck.

'Kagome!'

Would that miko never stop plaguing her?

She snarled.

'He would mate HER, a ningen? And deny ME?'

Her kaze nature rose up, the fury fueling the whirling winds of her blood. 'Never!' Mindless with the red haze of her blood, she threw herself on his unprotected back, her claws curling out to strike.

He sensed her movement, and turned at the last second, his own hard hands coming out to grip hers at the wrist. She tried to pull away from his hold, snarling, her eyes flashing crimson fire.

::Gods, she's beautiful when riled...::

She froze at that thought. He thought her beautiful?

He grinned at her, fangs flashing. Gods, he was a smug bastard! Maybe, at one time, she had been beautiful. But now her face had been slashed by the ugly scar of Naraku's poison, and it would forever mar her. He was toying with her, thinking she would be one to be eased by mere flattery---

"Will you shut the hell up?" He growled at her. He pulled her wrists together in one firm clasp, freeing his other hand to come and sweep the fall of her wavy black hair aside. She jerked her head back, growling, her eyes glittering at him.

"Don't touch me!" She snarled.

'Not there...'

"Stupid witch..." He scowled back, his fingers pulling her chin forward. She hissed at him, her own fangs revealed, but he just growled her into silence. His thumb, the edged claw held carefully away, smoothed over the angry, purple-black welt of Naraku's anger.

She froze under the touch, unable to stop the trembling of her traitorous body or the stilling of her breath as the calloused pad of his finger swept over the mark of her shame.

::She is strong to have survived that.::

Strong? Her? He WAS a fool, if he thought that she was---

He growled at her. "Don't lie, even to yourself."

She closed her eyes tightly, unknown and indescribable feelings washing over her. Something was tickling her nose, and she felt a surge of choking emotion washing up from the small part of her soul she had always kept hidden away in the deepest recesses of her troubled soul.

A single tear jeweled in the corner of her eye and fell down her cheek, sliding across the white skin and along the jagged scar of her pain to nestle like a tiny diamond on the edge of his thumb.

He freed her chin to brush his claws across her hair, and she bowed her head, humiliated that he would see her tears. 'I am not weak!' She said fiercely. 'I refuse to cry...'

Refuse to show him her weakness, her pain and sadness...

He released her wrists from his hard clasp, and his strong arms came up to haul her against him. ::Damn it all. Stupid kaze female! Let it go, damn it! You are not alone any longer!'

The voice in her mind was firm, and she clung to it as she clung to him, burying her head against his hard chest, the tears falling quicker now, her will unable to stop the flow of releasing pain that he had freed from within her.

'Damn him...'


	49. Chapter FortyEight: Dreams

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, I made up for it with two new chapters. nn Part of the reason for the delay was the chapter I just wrote on a round robin for Amy Fushigiyugi and Belledaynight on "Yin & Yang", a collaboration by many talented authors under the pen-name "inuyashalovegroup". Grateful thanks for Amy, Vyncent and Fairia who helped with edit and encouragement, special note to Fairia for helping me with Kagome's boxers. O.O For Vengeance, special thanks to Vyncent and Fairia13 for continued help and inspiration, kowtows and deepest gratitude to Jazngurl for all of her hard work in translation and ideas, and many, many hugs for all the supportive reviewers who have stuck with me since the beginning. If anyone wants added to my mailing list for updates, please let me know and email me at Inufanasha(at 

WARNING: SOME DARK IMAGERY.

Chapter Forty-Eight (Dreams)

A pale yellow light danced back and forth, the soft glow of starlight and warmth. Delicate wings beat a quick rhythm as the youkai sought out its Lord. The messenger swayed with the wind, alighting and glowing, flicking up and away, its music silent but poignant in ethereal beauty.

A pale hand, claws extended, snatched the small creature from the darkened night. Wings fluttered in terror, and the soft buzzing of angry demands for release fell on deaf ears.

"Such a tiny creature..." The dark voice purred as the wings beat frantically, seeking escape.

There was no escape.

Fingers tightened, and the small, delicate form was crushed, its pale yellow glow extinguished under cruel claws.

"They seek to warn the Taiyoukai." His dark smile of knowledge was smugly macabre. "What pitiful messengers the spider sends."

Opening his hand, the crushed remains fell to the dark earth below, discarded. Red eyes glowed behind the laughing mask of the baboon, summoning his own small soldiers to his side.

The loud buzzing of hundreds of insects, the poisonous scourge of Hell, crowded out the night sounds of the forest around him. Clear wings whirred incessantly, while eyes glowed with bloody fire.

"Saimyousho." He named them, his smile one of wicked delight. "Listen to the words of your Master, and heed them well. Find the butterfly messengers of the Taiyoukai, and destroy them. Let none escape."

There was an increased whir of noise from the attentive insects, conveying their understanding. With a flick of their wings, they were suddenly gone, the menacing wave spreading out to find the glowing youkai of Suyo's calling and crush their delicate light under their own inimical evil.

His sleep was troubled, but he always arose with an abundance of energy...sometimes, he felt, an overabundance. Strange images were ingrained on his sleeping mind, images he could not place. When he sought for them, delving through the corners of his mind, the inu would surge against his constraints, the rage of denial seeking to overwhelm him. Grudgingly, he left it alone, unwilling to sacrifice the loose rein he now held over his inu blood.

He sifted through the dreaming memories, trying to find something familiar, and could not. Seas of people in strange clothing, buildings tall and edged with a plain line of architecture he detested in his own personal taste. These images were tangled with the strange ones of a more personal acquaintance...ningen in clothing similar to the miko's...people from her own time, perhaps, who were once familiar to her? A face, a mother's face with tender brown eyes that reminded him---uncomfortably---of the warm brown eyes of a young miko who had captivated him...

He did not desire these memories. He did not desire her...

'Since when have I ever prevaricated and deceived myself?' He thought idly. She was intoxicating to him, the thought of her, the recollection of her. The feel of her soft skin under the tips of his fingers, the sharp edge of his claws held delicately away from her white skin that was so fragile...

She was a distraction, a need he could not tolerate as Taiyoukai.

And still he called to her in the deep night...seeking understanding, union, joy...

'Joy?'

She was joy...the embodiment of it, the nuances of it captured in her scent...ripening and growing and fulfilling him as nothing had or ever could...

Fangs flashed as the inu growled within him. Her fragrance was soothing to the inu, the inu would claim her, keep her...

::MINE.::

He refused to give in to his baser nature. 'I am Taiyoukai.' He reaffirmed each morning he awoke with her fragrance lightening as his awakening consciousness reasserted its cool control.

And that was what disturbed him the most. Her scent, there was something...something in her scent that made him wish to seek her out and wondered, idly, if...

'Impossible.'

He would know more, but not by seeking her. He was not one to go into a battle unprepared. And he knew this would be a battle, of a kind he did not know, but his instincts told him that he must know more...

The inu raged inside of him, snarling against his decision.

::MINE.::

He coolly reasserted his control over the inu, reining it back, though for how long could he deny his inner nature, he knew not.

Golden eyes tinged red for a single moment, glowing in the faint candlelight of a distant land, the inu still seething underneath the surface...

::Mine...::

There was one single face that stood out in her dreams. A face that made her shiver and want to hide. Silly, really, to want to hide away from a mere dream...

'Gotta be the hormones.' Kagome thought idly to herself, plucking at the browning grass beside her with distracted motions. Her eyes were troubled, as her thoughts rambled on without focus.

It was a woman's face. Well, not really a woman's. Not an onna, and definitely not that of a ningen. The ears were a dead give away. Pointed and sculpted along the scalp, hidden partially by the luxuriant white hair that fell in long silky waves along proud, arrogant features.

She was beautiful, this youkai woman who haunted her dreams. But there was something in her eyes, in the harsh set of her beautiful mouth that disturbed her...

'Cruel.' Kagome decided. 'She's cruel.'

She actually felt a relieved sense of happiness at having finally realized just WHAT had been troubling her about that beautifully cold, haughty face.

'Kami, I hope that's not going to be my daughter!' She shivered with the thought. 'Ugh!'

One of the elder women of the village had said she might well dream of her coming child. The woman had put a papered scrap in her hand, saying it was a charm to ward off the jealous spirits who might try to give her unborn son an ugly face. She had patted her arm, and said conspiratorially, "Even a boy should have a nice look about him, child. It's not as important, of course, as a girl being born ugly. But a boy shouldn't be hard on the eyes, either. You use my charm, and pray to the kami for your baby."

Fingers pulling at the grass, Kagome quirked her lips up in a rueful smile. The villagers meant well, they really did. But some of their superstitions were really trying. She was always being stopped on her daily walks into the woods by older women and young mothers who told her what she should and shouldn't be doing to insure this or that. Some advice, she actually liked: she shouldn't sew at all, as it may cause knots to be tied in the umbilical cord....she should eat red meat ('Shards, I could go for a cheeseburger right now!') to thicken her baby's hair...she should keep away from funerals, making sure that the restless spirit of the newly dead wouldn't latch on to her baby out of jealously for the new hope of life...oh, there were too many to count!

Others, she would rather have done without. Whenever she got quiet and moody, she was scolded by some kindly-meant old biddy who told her she would sour her son's disposition. Whenever she was lighthearted and exuberant, the same dire warnings were given her---but this time in case the baby would be born too happy and foolish.

'I'd rather a happy, foolish baby, come to think of it.'

Worst of all, a lot of those old women kept suggesting she go and clean out the midden. Doing such a humble task would please the spirits, and ensure the gift of beauty to her child.

She didn't care if her child was born with crossed eyes and a bulbous nose, buck teeth and a receding chin---there was NO WAY she was touching that mire with her hands!

'EW!'

Shuddering at the thought, she welcomed any distraction, and was glad to see Koharu and Shippo coming up over the hill from the village. Shippo was darting around, playing a strange version of hopscotch that he had made up himself from Kagome's description of it, and Koharu carried a covered basket in her hands.

Koharu walked slowly and ponderously up the long hill, Shippo skipping alongside. She had gained weight even quicker than Kagome had. The young girl had been ecstatic when she had discovered her pregnancy, thanks to old Kumiko's eels, and she had dove into it with the pure delight of one who had only one desired goal in life: to have children. Miroku had been a bit taken aback by Koharu's exuberance, but Kagome could tell that the blue-eyed monk was as eager as Koharu for their baby to come.

The monk had even started building a house for Koharu---a signal to the village that he accepted the child, and the mother, and would provide for them. It wasn't a formal arrangement, but it satisfied the wagging tongues who had been skeptical about whether or not the amorous monk would ever settle down with anyone---or with any ONE woman.

Koharu was almost giddy with the attention she received---she loved spending hours speaking with old women, taking their advice very seriously, and had quite a stash of omamori---charms to ensure this or that for her coming babies. Koharu was convinced that she would have twins. A boy and a girl, with Miroku's eyes and her wavy hair. One grey-haired granny had advised her that if she ate enough, the kami would see what a good provider she was for her child, how truly giving she was in sacrificing her own girlish figure for her baby. The spirits would be impressed with her self-sacrifice, and would bless her with two children, instead of just one.

Kagome didn't even try to argue with Koharu about how the kami had nothing to do with it...it was the male's sperm seeding two eggs or a single egg dividing into two that determined how many children would be born at once. Koharu was in a happy little dream of her own, and Kagome was not one to burst it with something the sweet but traditional girl would not truly comprehend.

Half way up the hill, Shippo abandoned Koharu's side for Kagome's.

"Okaa-san!" Green eyes lighting up, he bound up the hill on all fours. Kagome dropped the shredded grass in her hands and opened her arms, waiting for the little kitsune to hop into them with his usual exuberance.

But Shippo slid to a rolling stop by her side, and gave her a gentle hug instead. Kagome blinked in surprise at his careful handling of her, and Shippo flushed. "Lady Kaede said I must be more careful, okaa-san, around the babies in your stomach."

'Babies?' Kagome froze, eyes wide, but Shippo's next words laid THAT thought to rest.

"Kaede gave me a big scolding, and said I needed to be more careful around both you and Koharu, as the babies in your stomachs were still tiny and might get hurt. I would never hurt you, though, okaa-san." His green eyes were tremulous with that frightening idea, and Kagome hugged him hard, leaning awkwardly to the side, as her belly wasn't that accommodating any more.

Since her impending motherhood had become known, Shippo had started referring to her openly as "okaa-san". Kagome loved hearing it, she had always thought of Shippo as her own little brother, but over the years, her maternal instincts had kicked in and she had seen him more and more as her own little kitsune. She had often daydreamed that she and InuYasha were together, raising a family, and Shippo had always been there with them, playing big brother to a whole brood of tiny little InuYasha's.

Now, she couldn't seem to fit InuYasha into that familial picture, and sometimes, in her most secret heart of hearts, she dreamed of another inu who might play father to her children...

Blushing, one hand rested on her stomach in a now-familiar motion. Her other arm hugged Shippo to her side, and the little kitsune laid his paws on it as well. Suddenly, Kagome gasped, and Shippo giggled.

"I felt it! I felt it!"

The strange sensation returned...a feeling like she got after shaking a soda can and all the bubbles rushed all at once to the surface....that was the only way she could think to describe it, and Shippo's green eyes were dancing as he shouted happily.

"It's a baby, okaa-san!"

Kagome laughed, and ruffled his rusty head. "Of course, silly. I think it's moving." Her eyes were glowing and happy as she turned to look up at Koharu. Koharu's own eyes widened, and she dropped the basket, clasping her hands over her own wide belly in delighted anticipation.


	50. Chapter FortyNine: Challenge

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.

WARNING: LANGUAGE AND LIMES SERVED. NO ONE UNDER 17, PLEASE!

Chapter Forty-Nine (Challenge)

"Eat."

"I can help myself."

Snort.

"Is that a challenge?" The taijiya's voice was laced with anger.

He had heard those words before, they echoed in his mind, a reminder of the time when they had battled the water god and he had deliberately goaded her, trying to ease (instinctively) the pain of lost sadness that consumed her. She had just lost her family then, and he had used the tool he had always used to stave off his own feelings of pain: argument.

The sadness lurked in the back of her deep brown eyes, and the only time it lifted was when they were fiercely glittering at him, like now.

He grinned toothily. "Bring it on, anytime."

She actually blushed, her memory sharp.

"I'm not weak." She said stubbornly, thrusting her chin forward mulishly.

Snort.

"I can manage on my own."

"You think so?" He scoffed, holding the small porcelain cup out. The strengthening soup was golden in the dim firelight, the contents gently steaming.

Focusing her energy, she raised her white hand, the tips of her fingers brushing his. She blushed at the contact, but he remained nonchalant. Brow furrowed, she grasped the cup and he let go, just waiting to snatch in back.

He did, just in time, as her shaking hand nearly spilled the contents over, her body's weakness betraying her determination of independence.

"Ha!" He smirked knowingly, biting back an "I told you so." with a bare minimum of restraint.

She glared, her pale cheeks flushed with impotent anger. Her brown eyes didn't darken with emotion, they lightened, almost glowed in the flickering orange firelight with hints of dark honey.

"Now, are you gonna let me help you or are you going to starve?" He goaded her.

She actually considered it, and his eyes darkened ominously as his own short fuse started to light.

'Stubborn wench.'

He actually liked that in her. It reminded him of himself. That thought brought his good humor back, and his amber eyes lightened and he even grinned. "It's the only way you'll get your strength back, you know."

She didn't like admitting defeat. Averting her eyes, she just set her mouth to a grudging line and stiffly nodded.

Gods, he liked that.

Sidling next to her, he casually lifted her up with one arm so that she was braced against him. She was as stiff as a board, and he bit back a growl of impatience as she wasted what little strength she had in trying to stay rigid.

'Damn it, anyway.'

He kept forgetting that SHE was not used to HIM. He had had three days of taking care of her, and nothing about her body was a secret from him. But she had been unconscious the whole time, and had obstinately ignored the fact that there was only he there who could have taken care of her. He kept forgetting that. Maybe he should be more patient with her.

'Damn it, anyway.'

He hauled her next to him, so that her back was buttressed against his shoulder and arm. Lifting the porcelain cup in his left hand, he brought it to her mouth. Her eyes glittered on him for a moment, but he tipped the cup invitingly, features bland.

She wrinkled her nose at him, an unconscious gesture, but lowered her eyes, signaling her acquiescence. Her short supply of energy fled, and she went limp against him, so that he propped her up. Opening her mouth like an obedient pup, she allowed him to pour the strengthening soup in small, measuredsips. Her black head bowed beneath his, and he allowed his amber eyes to soften a moment on her.

'Stubborn wench.'

She had been avoiding the issue as much as possible. But she longed for a bath, to clean the smell from her skin and wash the dullness from her hair. She felt itchy and disgusting, and it made her grumpy.

But there some things she didn't dare ask. She might be weak from her wound---though where was the scar to prove it? And how had she been out of it for three whole days without realizing it? To be honest, she didn't really want to think about it.

She struggled to regain her strength, and part of her was almost glad that she was still too weak to be up and moving. She didn't want to admit that she liked being cared for. It was something of a novelty...

So she avoided the issue of a bath, but give it to the stubborn hanyou to bring it up.

Bluntly.

"You reek."

Eyes widening in shocked outrage, she growled at him. "Excuse me?"

"You need a bath. You stink."

'Stupid, arrogant, oafish...'

She just glared at him, soft mouth a firm white line.

"Well?" His amber eyes glowed at her.

'Maddening, stubborn, tyrannical, imperious....'

Arms folded, it was his turn to glare. "WELL?"

'Cocky, underhanded, dastardly, mulish ruffian...'

"Fine." He grit out between clenched teeth, and she thought she had won the argument when he unfolded his crossed arms and clenched his claws into fists.

Until he swooped down on her with hanyou-aided speed, and grabbed her up, will-she, nill-she, in his arms.

"INUYASHA!" She shrieked, right into his closest ear.

The furry white triangle flattened against his skull, and he growled menacingly at her.

"Don't DO that!" He yelled right in her face.

"Put. Me. Down!" She yelled back, infuriated.

She was so furious with him, she hadn't realized that he had carried her all the way to the deeper part of the stream that the village had always used as a public bath.

"Is that a challenge?" Fangs flashed and amber eyes taunted.

"YES!" She yelled back.

"Fine." He let go.

She went in, gasping as her head went under. She came back up, shivering with the aching cold of it. The stream was mountain-fed, and icy. "D-d-damn y-you!" She ground out between chattering teeth. Her kimono was soaked and clung to her like a second skin, her breasts pebbled with indignance.

A bag of sweetsand came arcing over the water to land in the icy stream with a splash. She glowered at the hanyou's broad back, the silver white hair touching past his haori and brushing the back of his hakama-clad thighs.

"Yell when you're done." The dog-eared mongrel yelled over his shoulder, stalking away.

Kirara was suddenly there, sitting on her haunches and licking a black paw, eyes glowing with faint mirth as Sango glared at the hanyou's retreating back.

'Jerk.'

Slowly, her strength returned, though it surprised her how long it took. She must have really been ill to have been so weakened. Even as she felt her resilience growing daily, there were still times when she suddenly needed to sit down, limp with exhaustion.

She had never been so weak.

She hated it, really she did.

And always there was InuYasha, to goad her and growl at her, to make her flush angrily with his harassment and blush at the offhand way he would take over a task that had fallen from her faltering fingers or---worse---to grab her up in his strong arms when she felt too weak to stand or walk. He always seemed to be there, at the right time, knowing instinctively when she needed him.

She was startled, sometimes, at how much she had come to depend on him. She had never depended on anyone. Well, that was not entirely true. When the depleted village had been full of bustling people, she had never thought about how everyone would come together and support one another with simple tasks. The small community had always been tightly knit, and she saw their ghosts, sometimes, when she gazed at the rows of empty houses, frayed and broken, a stark reminder of their loss.

It was those times that InuYasha was at his worst, baiting her and harassing her until she could scream---and often did---distracting her from sad memories of the past. She knew he did it on purpose, and she was---sometimes, in a small part of the back of her mind---grateful for it.

She was startled to realize that she hadn't even thought about her poor brother in over a week. A tiny pang of guilt laced through her heart, but she felt somehow freed of the haunting grief that had always plagued her after his death.

'Rest at peace, little brother.' Her mind sent on the gentle wind that was bringing the chill of an early winter in its breath.

She smiled softly to herself, feeling freed.

"What the hell are you smiling about?" He was there, suddenly, glowering at her from under the heavy weight of her Hiraikotsu. The early morning sun glittered on his hair, making the white stand out over the glinting silver and his amber eyes glow with golden intensity.

Her brown eyes were deep and soft as she gazed at him. "Thank you." She said simply.

He shrugged it off, but he didn't fool her. "Feh. Whatever."

She just smiled.

He studied her expression for a long moment, and then scowled. "Come on. It's time you started training again."

Her smile grew, her eyes a honeyed almond in the early golden of the autumnal sun. She was almost breathless with anticipation. To feel the weight of her weapon again, to strengthen her muscles and use them in the supple precision she had been taught...she had longed for it, but he had stubbornly refused to push her slow recovery.

It was time to heal.

As her vitality burgeoned, they both took up their weapons and trained against each other. His strength---and hers---grew daily. Tetsusaiga's increased weight was hardly a hindrance anymore, and he was amazed at how swiftly she recovered her own skill with Hiraikotsu.

That first day, she had barely been able to lift the heavy boomerang. He had actually had to yell at her to quit trying to heft it up before she pulled a muscle and made him carry her again. Surprisingly, she had listened to him.

But not for long.

He would have gone much more leisurely, knowing how frail ningen could be. But she constantly surprised him at how strong---and stubborn---SHE was. Determined to gain her skills and independence back, she pushed herself beyond the limits of sanity. He would often have to force her fingers, literally, to let go of the boned boomerang's straps, and even then she would glare at him and try to argue that she was fine, to let her be.

'Not a damn chance.'

So she had taken to sneaking around behind his back. While he was out busy catching food for dinner or knocking down trees to start repairing some of the damage done to the houses of the village, she was in the training field, whirling Hiraikotsu above her head, and, eventually, letting it fly.

When he had returned early one day with a brace of skinned rabbits, he had been shocked to find her out there tossing Hiraikotsu around. Dropping his catch in the dirt, he had run straight at her, hooking the heavy boomerang from right above her head. Standing above her with amber eyes flashing, he had yelled at her, point-blank, that she was an idiot for pushing her strength. Did she want a relapse?

Flushed with her own anger, she had yelled right back. He had never seen her so heated---the deep brown of her eyes had lightened and glittered, her thin brows had come down in exasperation, her rosy mouth had spat the most awful accusations at him, defying him to stop her.

He'd loved it.

Gods, he could get her worked up. And easily. He'd baited Kagome like this, making the young miko just want to "sit" him into the ground. But he had never, ever, thought he could get the closed off and quietly composed taijiya to show such awesome emotion. Ever since that day when he had found her smiling all silly by herself and brought Hiraikotsu out, Sango seemed free of whatever had haunted her. The sadness in the back of her lively brown eyes didn't return often, and when it did, he was quick to dispel it.

"Is that a challenge?" had become a call-sign for them both. He reveled in the fact that she was always so ready to face off with him. He'd always respected her, as a strong fighter and loyal companion. But he had never known her...he had always been too wrapped up in his own thoughts about vengeance and the torn love between the women whom he had never been able to seperate from each other in his mind...

Guiltily, he realized suddenly that he hadn't thought about Kikyo---or Kagome---in a number of days. His sense of failure was still raw, and he was adept at ignoring it. But it crept up on him, sometimes, making him moody and silent.

Like now.

Except there was Sango, ever-ready and able to divert him.

She had donned the black body armor of the slayer---repaired by her own deft needle---and was carrying Hiraikotsu with unconscious ease and grace over her shoulder. The powerful weapon towered over her small frame, and he was amazed anew at the strength she held within her.

"Fight?" She said simply, brown eyes warm and challenging.

He raised a thick black brow. "Is that a challenge?"

"Bring it on." She flashed a smile that rivaled the sun in brilliance, before adding succinctly. "Anytime."

He was on his feet in an instant, his claws already reaching for Tetsusaiga's hilt. Following her toward the barren ring that served as a training ground, he watched the lithe, graceful movement of her walk. She stepped lightly, on her toes, ever ready. A warrior.

Half of his mind was on the motions, feint and swing, tag and parry as they moved back and forth, Hiraikotsu absorbing the lighter stroke of Tetsusaiga. He didn't use his full strength on the boomerang: even Hiraikotsu could not stand up to the increased might of Tetsusaiga's powerful fanged blade, but he didn't hold back too much either. Sango was quick, and kept him on his toes, he really had to work to keep her on the defensive. Her superior knowledge of tactics had taught him (after some hard knocks from Hiraikotsu's broadside) to think a little more than was his normal want. She had tempered his strength with technique and discipline.

She actually pulled back, breathing a bit fast but not overly exerted, and finished Hiraikotsu's downward motion in an swinging arc behind her back, bringing it to rest. She glowed with the exercise, and he marveled at how beautiful she could be, standing there with her bangs sweatily curling across her forehead.

She signaled breathlessly that she wanted to train with her sword now. He liked that best. Hiraikotsu was a strong weapon, a powerful tool in her line of work. But he liked watching her work with a blade. Her true mastery was over her katana, and he admired the almost cat-like grace of her movements with the steel blade.

He waited for her to catch her breath, resting Tetsusaiga on his shoulder with an ease he had not believed possible. Totosai had been right, damn him. Training with the heavier fang had increased his hanyou strength, and he was able to wield it easily now. Muscles bulging under the firm weight, he raised it up in a two-handed defensive stance when Sango finally gestured that she was ready to begin.

She came on the offensive, quick to press her advantage. He kept Tetsusaiga's impact light; her katana would not have been able to stave off the heavier fang. She had actually taught him control of the blade while training with her like this. She gave no quarter, and after his first few tries at running headlong at her, and her easy sidestep and swing at his unprotected back, he had eased off from that tactic.

She was not holding back this time either. Her feet, deadly weapons of their own, were fast, and she spun at him, her sword approaching from the left while her foot came, only delayed by seconds, from the right. She had tried that technique before, and he had barely staved it off. Now he knew it was coming, and was quick to use Tetsusaiga to deflect the deadly edge of her katana, while blocking her flying leg with his own. He grunted under the impact, and whirled around, freeing his blade.

They engaged again, a whirl of motion. He growled at her, and she smiled. She snarled at him, and he smirked. Beads of sweat ran down them both, flattening their hair to their heads and getting in their eyes. Still she kept on, and he refused to stop first. One thing he did know, his stamina and endurance were far stronger than hers, but she seemed determined to outlast him.

Did she think that he would cave in, fearing she might over-tire herself? 'Ha! If she's that determined to exert herself, than so am I!'

Her motions became a bit slower---only a tiny bit, but he knew it and knew she knew he knew. Firming that obstinate chin of hers, brown eyes glittering under the dampened tangles of her bangs, she pressed on.

And on.

And on.

But she was growing more and more tired, and eventually, it was her undoing.

Following a feint to the right, she made her body arch around and spun a flying kick at his mid-section. But her timing was off, and he had a whole second in which to deflect it. Grinning his triumph, he knocked her blade aside and out of her sweaty grasp with a one-handed blow of Tetsusaiga, using his other hand to grasp her foot in mid-swing and bring her down.

She landed on her back with a loud whoosh of air, the solid impact of it making him instantly contrite. White fire flared as Tetsusaiga diminished to rusty insignificance, and he quickly sheathed the sword. Stepping forward, he bent down, extending a clawed hand to help her up.

An amused flash of her brown eyes was his only warning before a black-clad foot was planted in his belly and he went sailing over her head to land on his own back with a loud explosion of air leaving his lungs. Dazed for a moment, he sat there blinking the shock from his widened eyes.

'Damn.'

Sango was actually standing over him, laughing at his shock in gasping breaths, her breasts rising and falling as she inhaled deeply, trying to catch her own breath.

His amber eyes narrowed.

That was DEFINITELY a challenge.

Quick as lightening, he had the taijiya toppled on the ground behind her, slightly cushioning the fall with his arms wrapped around her waist. She gasped in outrage, the air leaving her as his solid weight pressed down. Taking advantage of her astonishment, he moved up her trim body, claws pinning her shoulders to the dirt.

"Win." He grinned toothily at her, amber eyes glowing his triumph. His heavier body pinned her to the earth, and he made no bones about pressing his advantage of weight. She couldn't move an inch from underneath him, though she did try for a moment, before giving up the goat and admitting defeat.

Relaxing under him, she nodded slightly, her brown eyes laughing. "Win." She admitted with a heaving breath.

He stilled above her, his eyes darkening as he realized just how close they were. He could feel the softness of her breasts pressing against him through his haori, the long, supple length of her thighs held captive by his own. His claws curled over her shoulders, and his mouth was just inches from hers.

Her eyes widened slightly, and she let out a fluttering breath, her stomach rising and falling rapidly under his broad chest. He could even see the pulse-point of her quickening heart-beat at the base of her throat. Nostrils expanded, and he took in the sharp scent of her sudden arousal. Desire flared along his blood, and he pressed down, instinctively wanting to feel her soft body around him.

Faint red streaks curled over the golden intensity of his amber eyes, which arrowed on her parted lips. Her pale cheeks were flushed, with more than exertion. His gaze intense, he paused for a significant moment, waiting to see if she would reject him, before bending his head and claiming her mouth with his own.

There was none of the nervous wonder that had accompanied the soft, hesitant touch of his lips with Kikyo or Kagome, uncertainty making it chaste and tentative. Instead, this was a taking, a claiming, a fired explosion of need that seized his very being. The inu youkai in him growled with dominance as the taijiya's mouth softened under his. Awakened desire coursed through his blood, heating him and demanding more.

She melted under him, and he held her mouth captive with his own, forcing her lips open so that he could taste the sweetness within. Her gasp of surprise was swallowed under the fire of his passion, and he curled over her possessively, his claws digging into her shoulders, pressing his claim.

She moaned softly, and arched up against him, the heightened scent of her arousal igniting his blood. He ground his need against her, pressing her down into the hard earth with the ferocity of his awakening. Her shuddering gasp made him want to claim her there and then, for all time...

Her own quiver of passionate need actually released him from the fired intensity of his own desires, and he lifted his mouth from hers, the doubt and concern that he had gone too far bathing him in icy reality.

'Damn.'

He gazed down at her, brow furrowed, wondering if he had sent her over the edge with the ferocity of his inu blood. No woman deserved to be ravished by his unruly lust, especially Sango, who had grown into a need of his to keep safe...

Her lips were swollen and bruised from his ravishment, and he suddenly felt despicable. Ears flattening against his skull, the worry filtered through the intense golden amber of his eyes. Sango's deep brown eyes were soft and wondering as they gazed at him, and he suddenly felt like an ass.

What the hell had he done?

She could sense his withdrawal, and she refused to let him. His claws had loosened from their firm hold on her shoulders, and she freed one hand to lift it up to his cheek, the tips of her fingers tangling in the silver-white hair that clung silkily to his tanned skin.

"InuYasha..." She whispered, her voice caressing.

He closed his eyes, not wanting to see rejection in hers. "I'm...sorry." He said, stiffly, jerking himself off of her and sitting back on his haunches.

She wouldn't let him leave her. She followed him, grabbing a hold of his clawed hand in her own, her brown eyes honeyed with awakened emotion and intensity. "InuYasha." She called softly, but he kept his head bowed, not wanting to see his fear of rejection realized.

She touched his cheek with her free hand, cupping his chin and raising it up so that she could kiss him lightly, tentatively with her own sweet lips. His eyes widened, the amber turning to gold. She dropped her own mouth from his, suddenly shy with her boldness, and just sat in his arms, relaxing against him, her black head bent in the crook of his shoulder. Her hand dropped to lie open-palmed on the red fabric of his chest.

'Sango...'

He breathed in her scent, amber eyes softening as his arms came up to fold around her, holding her tight.

Neither of them were alone anymore.

A/N: The pieces are falling into place. Promises of Sess/Kag in the next posting...


	51. Chapter Fifty: Hell's Children

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, etc. Rumiko Takahashi does. (Lucky lady.)

A/N: Gomen for the wait. Special thanks to Vyncent and Fairia13 for your continued help and inspiration. Vyncent inspired the battle in the later part of the chapter, much to my surprised delight, and it is thanks to her that a whole new twist has been put in this little story. I'm working on the next chapter now, and should be catching up on my emails tonight. Take care, and thank you for the reviews!

WARNING: DARK IMAGERY.

Chapter Fifty (Hell's Children)

"Damn! Don't you EVER shut up?"

She just stared at him with those big red eyes he could drown in...damn her...and her mind, for once, was quiet.

Too quiet.

He scowled at her. "Now you're just seething."

:Ungracious lout.:

"MUST you call me names in my HEAD?" Gods, he had a headache. That damn---

:Don't you dare call me a witch, mongrel!:

'MONGREL!'

That damn---FEMALE---was getting on his last nerves. He had always thought that one of her---FEW---good qualities was that she kept her damn pretty mouth shut, holding completely understandable conversations with those rubied orbs of hers, which told a lot more about what she was feeling than she could ever know.

:You are annoying me.: She sent him.

Gods, she was a chatterbox!

'And YOU are annoying ME.' He snarled back.

She shrugged, her eyes glinting. :You marked me.:

"And you marked ME." Damn it all.

Their marks, touched by their united auras, blazed white fire at each other, reaffirming the bond between them.

They were, suddenly, of one mind, and he grinned at her, wolfishly, and she blushed, but the sparkle in her eyes wasn't with annoyance, but with something more ardent. Both reached for the other at the same time, their thoughts kissing across each other's with embered desire. As their minds entwined and burned, their arms embraced and their mouths sealed the passion between them.

Gods, she was hot.

She was growling at him, and he enjoyed it. Immensely.

'Kami, that's sexy....'

He tensed suddenly, hearing a slight, tussling noise in the enshrouding brush. She stilled as well, the reddening glow of her ardor dissolving into the chilling awareness that they were not alone.

It was his turn to growl, and her lips left his. She bared her fangs slightly, and he mentally grinned at the annoyance now directed at the intruder, and not him. Gods, she was ready to defend him, her mate. He could sense the slight motion of her claws curling, her back stiffening, her eyes narrowing.

Damn, he liked that.

:Pay attention, wolf.: She snapped at him, but he could feel the warm surprise underneath the sharp thought...she was pleased by his smug pride in her.

Another stir in leafy brambles, and his thoughts immediately snapped into defense. His murmured rumble turned into a louder sound, a warning and a threat.

A head popped through the bushes---a white spiked head with a guileless smile. "Koga?"

Hakkaku, damn him.

Koga let out a grunt of impatience. "What?"

Another head popped out, this one grey and black. Ginta.

"Hey, Koga."

Koga was going to throttle the both of them. A hint of amusement---sent by Kagura---whispered across his mind, and he suddenly realized that they were both completely naked and that Hakkaku and Ginta were staring at them, wide-eyed with interest.

"I knew you would do it!" Ginta grinned.

Koga's blue eyes narrowed. "What. Do. You. Want."

"Er..." Hakkaku flushed, and the bush rattled angrily as he fished for something tangled in the branches. Browning leaves hissed in agitation and cloth tore sharply as Hakkaku thrust a bundle of white fabric out. Koga stared at the embarrassed ookami. Four lines scratched across the wolf-brother's reddened cheek stood out sharply.

"Somehow...heh...I woke up with this..." Hakkaku couldn't flush any brighter, it should have been a physical impossibility, but he did.

Kagura gracefully twisted around Koga's braced crouch, and neatly nipped it out of the ookami's claws. With a swirl of white fabric (and small shower of small twigs and leaves), the kaze youkai had her yukata firmly sashed around her trim waist.

Koga glared. What in all the forsaken hells was HAKKAKU doing with Kagura's robe?

Blue ice flared into fire.

Five furry heads popped out of the concealing brush, panting tongues lolling out as yellow eyes rolled across the clearing. One of the four-legged brothers got a good look at Koga, yelped, and was gone.

No fools, the others vanished with a scrambling of clicking claws in the dirt and a shower of brown leaves. Ginta and Hakkaku exchanged wary looks, blushed at Kagura's amusement, froze at Koga's deepening growl, and did one of the smartest things they had ever done.

They fled.

(Scene Change)

Blinking against the sudden piercing light of the rising sun that shot across the top of the desk, blurring the timeworn words on the parchment in front of him, SesshouMaru was brought out of his focused concentration. Stirring slightly, he eased the tension of his shoulders, idly watching the dust motes that danced under the sun's light and realized, finally, how weary he was.

'Has the night passed already?'

One pointed ear twitched, catching the faint sounds of the stirring day. The strange jabbering speech of this land made him wince slightly as his sensitive hearing caught the harsh cries of one peasant berating another. Their speech was far different from the soft sibilance of his own country, and suddenly, acutely, he felt the absence of the familiar from around him.

Pushing the parchment away from him, he stood up and combed his claws through the long fall of silvery-white hair that tangled down his back. Pausing to extinguish the rather smelly candle that had dripped wax over the base of its iron holder and hardened onto the scarred surface of the desk, he strode to the half-opened window that had let in the early sunlight to disturb him from his search.

Looking out upon the dirty streets of this far-off village, the ningen peasants with their strange, jabbering language and their stranger mannerisms, he sought, in his mind, the memory of a more soothing vista...one beheld from any side of his castle in the mountains of home.

'I have been away five months now. I should return. There is not much more than I can gleam from these articles.'

If he was honest with himself, truly honest, seeking out the scant bits of knowledge that would aid him in what he wished to understand had only been an excuse.

'I, feared Taiyoukai of the West, have been hiding. And from a mere scrap of a girl, a child in years to me, and a weak ningen at that.'

She was hardly weak, this ningen.

Reincarnated miko from the future who had carried the Shikon no Tama in her very body, a true Guardian of the Jewel. No, Kagome was hardly a weak creature.

But she made him weak. Or rather, she was his weakness.

'I am tired, that is all.' Cynically, he scoffed at the idea that his thoughts had presented to him.

Turning from the scene framed by the shuttered window that should have been familiar to him now after nearly three months spent in this cold monastery, but was not, he came to a decision. 'I will rest this day, and then return home. I am weary of finding no answers to questions that now seem pointless somehow.'

Staring at the various parchments and dusty tombs that littered every available surface of the small, stoned cell that had been given over for his use by the elderly youkai abbot who had once been a friend of his father's, he was struck by the very single-mindedness that had consumed him, the denial that he sought of what had come to pass. He was not usually so abnegating of the truth. Acceptance had finally come to him in this dawn's early light. With a final thought, he turned away from the symbol of his denial and embraced reality.

He could no longer deny his need for the girl. It would be foolish to do so.

::MINE...::

'Enough. What is, is. It is time to return home**.'**

(Scene Change)

Although no one would believe it, Miroku could be subtle at times. At least, he could try to be subtle. But when certain young ladies were not in a perceptive mood for subtlety, then hinting at anything and beating around the bush wasn't worth the time and patience it took.

'Well, hell.'

Look at him. Pathetic. He was resorting to obscenities, damn it.

Sighing, he stared morosely at his lap, mentally telling himself that he might as well give it up, or resort to a quick dunking in freezing water. Koharu wasn't perceiving his physical discomfort at all.

In fact, she was too busy sewing little garments for the coming baby to even notice his sorry condition. He felt like a heel, the girl had enough burdens---namely, his kid---and he shouldn't worry her with his, uh, little problem.

Except, he had never been little.

And what, normally, would be a minor irritation had turned into quite a frustration. Koharu wanted him to cuddle her every night, and he liked that as much as she did. But whereas it was comforting to her, and she slept like a babe in his arms, he was the one wide awake breathing in her womanly scent and fighting the urges of his weaker flesh.

Sigh.

"Miroku?"

He glanced up, blue eyes meeting the concern in her mild brown ones.

"Are you all right?"

'No.'

"Yes."

"You look tense."

Sigh.

Forcing a smile, he leaned over and tickled his fingers under her chin. She giggled---oh, gods, that giggle---and batted his hand away with her own. The firelight lit across her face, emphasizing the curve of her delicate cheek and the full roundness of her breasts. His deeply blue eyes darkened further, his want clear to see, all subtlety forsaken. But Koharu wasn't perceptive to his frank hunger. In fact, she was already bending her head, and attention, back to the sewing in her lap.

Sigh.

Her lips parted, teeth flashing momentarily as she neatly snipped the end of an over-long thread between them. His eyes were riveted to her mouth. A pink tongue poked out as she industriously re-threaded the needle in her fingers.

Miroku abruptly stood up.

Koharu looked up, startled, but he was already out of the hut, his walk firm and quick.

Kami, where in all of the forsaken hells was that freezing water?

(Scene Change)

The slight rattle of a disturbed pebble at the entrance to his cave made him turn around sharply, his eyes flashing red for a moment before his ookami blood cooled upon recognition and he scowled at the intruder.

'Damn northerners.'

"What?" Hideki grumbled, thoughts on the flaky fish he had prepared over the fire for his noon-day meal. Stupid northern wolves, always interrupting at the most inopportune times...

The mangy wolf-brother's weaselly eyes darted around the small cavern and fastened on the tasty morsel all wrapped up in tastier herbs, just waiting patiently for the old healer's mouth to complete the recipe of enjoyment.

The stupid whelp had the gall to look hungry, even licking his chops like Hideki might have compassion enough to fork over his lunch.

'Ha! The young scamp can catch his own.'

"WELL?" Hideki was out of patience with the stupid brute.

The northern youkai wouldn't meet his eyes. "Um...you're needed. Katashi---"

"Katashi's been hurt?" Hideki's eyes glowed.

At the northerner's glum nod, Hideki grinned, feeling extremely expansive, his mood lightening considerably.

"Badly hurt?" He prodded, delighted by the infinite possibilities in that thought.

The northerner cut a quick nod, avoiding the old healer's eyes. Hideki didn't care, though. He was suddenly in a really, really good mood. Grabbing up the small bag of his medicinals, he didn't even mind that his beautiful fish would be cold by the time he came back to eat it.

He was in such a good mood, he started humming a raunchy song as he pulled the small furry pouch where he had hidden the two Jewel shards Koga had given him at the start of the Gathering down from their hook on the wall. Unwinding the leather thong that necklaced the small pouch, he pulled it over his grizzled head and patted it reassuringly. He wouldn't let these little treasures out of his sight.

He even slapped the little northern ookami on his mangy grey back, making the wolf-boy stagger under the force of his friendly blow. Gods, he felt great. That arrogant ass had had his comeuppance, and if Katashi was laid up, that meant that Koga and Kagura were marked and mated, and all was well with the world...

"C'mon, puppy." Hideki chortled at the staggering ookami. "Take me to Katashi, and let's see what---if anything---I can do for him."

The northerner ducked under another friendly back-slap, and darted out of the cavern, Hideki's off-key voice humming right behind him.

(Scene Change)

They had spent the night wrapped in each other's arms, the slow exchange of searching looks and soft kisses a wonder to them both. But with the morning came the realization that their idyll was short. The thought lay between them, unspoken and yet there.

They must return, and soon.

InuYasha raised his head from where it rested against the midnight-softness of Sango's hair, a yawn breaking through as the curving muscles of his back twitched and flexed with awakening awareness. Golden amber glanced over the shadow-ridden hut and the question popped out of his mouth before he could stop to think about it.

"Where's Kirara?" InuYasha asked, puzzled.

"Kirara?" Sango started guiltily.

He chuckled slightly as the taijiya raised her head, her eyes concerned as she scanned the empty shadows of the hut. Dawn had come edging across the sky, the faint touch of the sun a pale glow around the edges of the bamboo curtain that shielded the doorway. He could hear the first piping call of a bird in the distance, and his nostrils expanded, taking in the early dew that touched the browning landscape outside, and the closer warmth of the girl wrapped in his arms.

He couldn't help nuzzling the side of her exposed neck, the mussed tangles of her black hair swept aside as she turned her head to look for her missing neko. Goose-bumps trailed across her delicate skin, and he kissed them as her body shivered in his. He rested his chin against the curve of her shoulder, his eyes a deeper golden than the sunlight peeking through the cracks in the shuttered windows. He could hold her like this forever...

Sango stirred in his arms, distracted. Much to his chagrin, she was not distracted by him, but by her sudden realization that she had not seen Kirara since yesterday afternoon, when the neko had been curled up in the sun and flicked her black-tipped tails at her as she passed by, taking her Hiraikotsu to challenge InuYasha to a match. The remembrance of the results of that match made her blush, but she was already unwinding herself from InuYasha's arms.

He wanted to keep her there, his head bent against hers as he just took in how comfortingly close she was to him, but he was still tentative, uncertain and doubting. He released her immediately, his gruff defense against rejection already bricked into place. Scowling, he glared at the empty room.

'Stupid cat.'

Why had he asked that stupid question anyway?

Sango could be downright single-minded at times, and he tried not to feel hurt when she didn't even cast a look back at him, but was already pulling the bamboo aside to hurry out of the hut to go look for the damn furball.

Damn it, anyway.

There was no help for it. Jumping limberly to his feet, he stalked after the taijiya, muttering under his breath about neko nuisances.

(Scene Change)

Stars that glimmered and twinkled against the night's sky were blackened by the horde of whirling insects that ascended and fanned out, seeking the faint, glowing luminance that marked the Taiyoukai's tiny allies. The whirr of their wings was an ominous, thundering sound that struck terror in the uncomprehending minds of peasant ningen below them, who huddled in their beds, praying to their various gods to protect them behind closed doors from the evil presence that lurked outside in the night.

The insects of Hell spread out across the face of the known world, seeking the tell-tale light of the delicate youkai who had been sent by the spider-servant of the inu Lord to find and warn him. Directed by the dark hanyou they called Master, they set about their task with a single-minded purpose: destruction.

The diminutive youkai were scattered, their pale glow of white and yellow auras seen as tiny, mirrored stars captured against the rolling lands that unfolded before the evil horde of Saimyousho. Hell's children, none dared interfere with their intent. The few who spied them, thinking to nab easy prey, for food or for merely the pleasure of killing, were quickly overcome, the very number of stinging insects overwhelming the petty fools who tried to stop them. If one insect died, there were dozens of others to surround the aggressor, turning predator into prey. The agonized screams of the dying youkai or animal as they sought escape from Hell's avenging children was an eerie call of pure terror, warning of approaching doom in the chilling depths of the night.

The airy butterflies, their beauty ethereal and delicately transparent, were singled and seperate, most of them scattering on the winds of the earth, searching for their missing Lord. Their very separation would be their downfall, as the Saimyousho would converge on each and every one in superior numbers, ensuring their torturous demise. Spying the first of the tiny lighted creatures, the evil horde seperated and spread out, the loud buzzing of their arrival overwhelming the small sounds of the night, the throbbing thunder of their whirling wings accompanied only by the red glow of bloody intent crimsoning their eyes, which brightened as they converged on the first of the unknowing youkai.

Their speed was unmatched, and the delicate, airy wings of the butterflies stood no chance against the darting grasp of the Saimyousho. The pale yellow and pearly glow of the first to die where swamped by the black aura of their malevolence, as the first of the tiny allies were surrounded and struck. The wisping scream of the initial victims made the bloody glow in the Saimyousho's eyes flare and heighten, as if the butterflies' very death was an aphrodisiac to them and gave them strength. Delicate wings beat desperately against the grasping claws of the evil insects, seeking futilely for freedom and release as they were encircled and stung, their pale glowing light flashing into radiant brilliance one last time and then fading as their crushed, pain-wracked bodies were tossed aside.

The whispers of their dying spread out, as the insects overtook more and more of the tiny messengers. The screams of the slain called to the others, who burned with a fierce glitter, their luminance taken from the very stars above, so that it seemed the night was lit by small strands of solitary lightening. Fury spread from ally to ally, their minds united by their youkai blood. The ones who were fastest, their wings brightest, were sent ahead, as the others stayed to defend them, distracting the evil horde in a last, desperate attempt. Word must reach the Taiyoukai at all costs, and the ones who stayed behind knew that they were merely a diversion, that their deaths were imminent and unavoidable.

By twos and threes they joined together, their glow illuminating into pale fire as they converged. Solitary butterflies, singing their friends' loss and sacrifice in an eerie song of angered sadness in a frequency too high to be heard by human ears, streaked on ahead into the chilling night. The ominous buzzing of the Saimyousho spread out, seeking to silence that beautifully ethereal and heart-torn song. Red eyes thirsted for blood, the faint yellow stripes on their black and violet bodies standing out as they amassed on the defenders. Poison dripped from stingers, claws chittered together and mandibles clicked in agitation as the others fled before the defending line of angry allies.

Black clouds of seething menace, they swarmed down on their easy prey, their contempt for the dainty butterfly youkai glistening in their red eyes. Paltry in number, the defenders would be easily overcome, their sacrifice nothing as the ones they sought to defend and allow escape were tracked down and killed, one by one, as decreed by their Master. None would survive.

They taunted their prey, the loud whirr of their wings and the hungry chittering of their evil cry increasing in malicious volume. Clustering together in tightly knit groups, they arched across the sky and arrowed down on their prey in a thunderous roar.

Desperation lent strength, and the butterflies left as sacrifice illuminated their fierce courage in a pale blaze of starlit anger. Delicate wings beat in fury, their soundless call of battle the last song of their dying, valiant hearts. Spreading wide their airy wings, they waited the oncoming death with grim determination. Brightening in anger, their own silent song reached a fevered pitch as the insects surrounded them on all sides, grasping their more delicate bodies in hard claws. Red eyes flashed, poison struck, and the futile struggles were trapped beneath stronger bodies and chitened armor.

They seemed easily subdued, but their evident weakness was not what it appeared. Drawing the Saimyousho in, the butterflies paid with their lives to inflict the most damage they could. Brightly glowing lights expanded as small forms writhed in torment, as delicate, fluttering wings were stripped off of struggling bodies and poison spasmed across the screaming youkai in the painful throes of death, their light condensed to white and yellow fire, becoming smaller and tighter around each tiny ally. With the last of their strength, the tiny globes of compressed light exploded, the last dying scream of triumph, not despair.

Sparks flew in all directions as the small forms were crushed beneath the ravaging hordes of the dark hanyou, Naraku. Startled by the sudden flash of lights as the tiny butterflies burst into sparkling showers, mimicking pinpoints of flaring starlight, the Saimyousho did not realize their danger. Drawing closer into the glittering explosions to destroy that final light, they ignored the tiny sparklets as if they were nothing, residual of a dying youkai. But as the glittering sparks touched wing, chiten, or claw, they embered and ignited, creeping over each insect they touched with a ghostly fire. That fire could not be rid, no matter how each insect buzzed and whirred and dove trying to put it out. It crept over them, consuming wing and claw and body in a slow agony of torturous, unending pain. The angry buzz grew into a screaming agony as countless Saimyousho were thus consumed, the surprise and terror of the dying having no effect on their brethren, who lingered, just out of touch by the fire of the dying butterflies.

Hundreds of insects were devoured in that final ghostly fire, their brethren untouched by the tormented screams of the dying. Hell's children had no pity, even for their own. They simply waited, hovering silently with eyes glowing crimson against the furious storm of ghostly fire that consumed their brethren. When the last dying scream was silenced, and the last fire-wrapped body fell in shrieking torment to the earth below, the Saimyousho turned as one, and stretched out their senses.

Speeding away in all directions were more of the butterfly youkai who they had been sent to destroy. Few in number, and filled with the despairing knowledge that their sacrificed companions had only been a diversion, they would be easily overwhelmed.

And easily destroyed.


	52. Chapter FiftyOne: Betrayed

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, etc. Rumiko Takahashi does.

A/N: Ok, y'all are gonna kill me for posting this chapter without the next, but I do promise Kagome by the end of the week. I was going to make you wait until I had both completed, but my schedule has allowed me to edit this one earlier than I expected. I want to thank Vyncent for sparking this new twist, for Fairia's addition of Kagura being quite mouthy and the wonderful Japanese/English website, and Tausha for encouragement. Jazngurl, I hope you are able to log back in again, Kilala, I miss the banter, and Bob ), I promise a lemon in the near future. XD Some of my translations/words might be off, but here are the ones I have used in this chapter: Buta means "pig", boushi means "hat", kumo means "spider", and I found three words for "butterfly", kochou, chou, and chouchou. I'm using kochou, but if anyone knows which one is best, please let me know and thanks! Again, I appreciate all of the continued support and awesome reviews. Many thanks!

WARNING: SOME DARK IMAGERY (Word edit on )

Chapter Fifty-One (Betrayed)

He could sense her presence.

'Kikyo...'

His eyes glowed for a moment, the red dominating the icy blue of them as he almost purred her name with delight, and fear.

She was his one weakness, and he despised the heart of Onigumo who still longed for the pure priestess of old. 'I should kill her.' Senses heightened by the delicious thought, he contemplated it like one might a fine wine, savoring the infinite possibilities of how he might bring about her demise...with slow torture and cries of weakening resistance to his dark arts, he could---

"Naraku."

His mind snapped shut on the delightful contemplations that had distracted him. She was THERE, in his rooms. His for the taking...

"Kikyo." His eyes glowed.

Her knowing smirk made the glow die into icy regard. The dead miko's white Soul Collectors twined around her, and his anger turned on them. With a small wave of his hand, they were disintegrated into vapors, their silent screams dying in hissed whispers of torment.

A single brow lifted on the cold miko's beautiful face, and she held the knowledge of his anger in the icy regard of her own brown eyes.

"You are a fool." She said.

Blue eyes narrowed, the anger beating through him.

He despised her...he loathed her...he loved her...

"I have come to offer my services to you, hanyou." She said, the curling disdain in her arched voice making him want to grasp the life from her cold body with his own hands.

The anger rose, defeating the colder side of him, and he was there, at her throat, claws curling around the white column and tangling in the midnight hair that hung silkily down her back.

"I should kill you."

Her cold eyes laughed at him. "I am already dead."

His claws turned caressing and soft as his fingers touched the fine white skin of her neck. He leaned his head toward hers, so that their mouths were mere inches apart. His reddened eyes were intense and full of the inner fire of his lust.

"You have told me, yourself, of the way to disrupt your powers. I should take you, little Kikyo, miko, love..."

Her hand, small and white, the nails tapered, came up to brush the side of his face. Her cold touch was like a fire to his blood, and he inhaled the dying scent of her that could intoxicate and overwhelm his very senses.

"You would have me carry your demon seed, so that I would be as helpless as the girl Kagome." She said softly, her voice as caressing as her soft fingers.

His claws fell from her throat and slid over her shoulders, peeling the white material of her kimono with them, so that the upper part of her soft breasts were exposed by the opened vee of her clothing. His eyes glowed once more, the red of lust.

"I could take you, here and now, little miko, and you could do nothing." He purred.

Her thumb grazed across the sensuous line of his mouth, and his eyes closed as he allowed the sensation to devour him.

The pain was sudden and burst like snapping fire from her hand. He released her immediately, falling back away from her with a hiss of angry rejection. The hand that had caressed glowed with the pale power of her sacred energy, and his claws touched the burnt spot on his cheek where she had branded him.

"(WITCH)." He snarled at her.

She merely smiled at him, a smile of the dead. "Do you think, Naraku, that this body of dirt and ash could bring forth life?"

"You are a fool, Onigumo."

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Koga sauntered across the caverns, his blue eyes glaring around at the idle wolves who lolled all over the place. 'Lazy louts.'

He had to stop, damn it, and wait for Kagura's more sedate pace to catch up to his. His eyes glowed for a moment as they watched her graceful, unhurried steps. She held herself like a queen, her head up, her back straight, her torn and dirty yukata the finest silks. Gods, she was a proud one.

'Hurry up, woman.' He sent at her, just to get under her skin.

She deliberately slowed her pace, her red eyes mocking.

A toothy grin was his only warning before rushing back to her side, swooping her up in his strong arms and planting a good, smacking kiss on her red lips, which parted in an outraged gasp at his man-handling.

A cheer went up, and Kagura flushed, hissing at him as he kissed her again, to the howling approval of the whole wolf-tribe, who came pouring out of every crevice and cave-mouth to cheer on their leader and his new mate.

The clan converged in a press of furry bodies and gleeful grins. Kagura withstood the mauling pretty well, before Koga started feeling crowded and claustrophobic from the swarm of eager young brothers bent on congratulating him. His roar echoed off the rocks above, and the milling pile of wolf-brothers disintegrated, melting back to stand in an attentive circle and giving him some damn space.

"Okay, listen up you mutts!" His fierce scowl didn't put a damper on their mood. His fist curled over Kagura's white arm, and he pulled her to his side in an unconscious move of possessiveness. "This is my mate. Got that?"

"You are ever eloquent." Kagura whispered in his ear, and he turned his glare on her, before realizing that her thoughts were tinged with mischief.

She was teasing him?

..I wondered if any thoughts ever penetrated that thick skull of yours... She flashed her fangs at him, before gracefully disengaging herself from his hold. She lifted her head, scanned the grinning wolves around her, and gave a slight nod to them all, her dignity never ruffled.

Until she was mobbed by a four-legged horde who attacked her with salivating vengeance, her nod a signal for them to pounce. She was knocked off her feet by the monsters, her gasp lost under a yipping welcome of excitement as the furry brutes swarmed over her small frame and she all but disappeared under a mass of wriggling bodies and wagging tails.

Koga's roar at their antics was abruptly cut off as a giggle reached his ears. His ears twitched, disbelieving the sound. Laughter followed, a clear laugh of pure joy, as Kagura dodged drool and was tickled by rough paws and wet noses. She patted and petted and tumbled around like a pup, much to Koga's stunned disbelief.

He was soon surrounded by his men, their cheeky grins and hearty back-slaps just as rowdy as their four-legged brethren. Koga would never have allowed such nonsense, but that kaze female was making his mind splinter into a thousand directions, damn her. He glared at her, even as he absorbed Ginta's hard punch on his shoulder like it was the sting of an annoying gnat. She was turning his tribe into a bunch of grinning idiots.

He caught the red glow of her eyes as she actually smiled at him, before a pink tongue took a swipe at her scarred cheek and she giggled like an idiot herself, dodging the attack. A red wolf nuzzled her chin in submissive welcome, and she grinned as Koga growled.

Gods, he wanted to throttle her. And then kiss her. And then...

She eyed him, her red eyes glinting. ..Welcome home, wolf...

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There was no sign of any northerners, and Koga was smugly satisfied to see that there wasn't a wisp of wiry grey hair around. 'Ha! Went back home with their tails between their legs, no doubt!'

He wondered idly how many bones he had broken in Katashi's face...

In all the noise and commotion of the impromptu feast, he had not noticed, at first, the absense of another ookami youkai. Sake casks (stolen from a foolish merchant who hadn't the sense to guard them better) had been cracked open, and a fat, juicy boar was roasting over the dancing fire. The night was touched with cold, but most of the furry clansmen were too sake-soaked to notice. Koga had seen Kagura's slight shiver as the wind kicked up, and nonchalantly threw a treated fur hide across her shoulders. Some of her four-legged admirers lumped themselves around the flat rock she had chosen as a casual throne, and she was drowsily watching the fire, leaning against the rocky wall behind her.

Koga looked around, searching for Hideki. Where was the old Crack-Tooth anyway? The old fart should have been in the thick of it, lording it over him with sly "I told you so's" and smug superiority...

His ears twitched, catching the faint sound of bouncing pebbles on rock. He was distracted, though, by a loud snore from a wolf-brother passed out on one side, his body draped over his wolfish friends, the furry armor barely distinguishable from the shadowy hides of his companions. He dismissed the sound---until he heard it again.

A thin, thready howl broke through the night, almost lost in the drunken song some of his men were muttering through in hoarse voices.

Jumping to his feet, he snatched up the nearest spear in passing. Kagura had started to yawn sleepily before she noticed his abrupt movement, and her head jerked up. Her eyes glowed crimson as she sent a question to him, suddenly tense.

..What is it?..

A wolf whined softly.

He shrugged, even as he sped up. Without his Jewel shards, he was no where near the speed he had once been, but he still could set a good pace. Muscles bunched in his thighs as he leapt for the uppermost crag of rock, so that he could see further down the jagged mountainside of his home. Using one hand to grasp the rocky face, he jumped up and crouched on the craggy knoll.

His sharp eyes caught the stumbling run of two of his ookami brothers, their panting scramble up the steep incline a testament to their desperation. "What the hell..."

The one with rumpled black hair looked up, saw his leader's braced form against the shadowed night, and drew a hoarse breath to shout, "Koga!"

Koga was down the cliff-face in a moment, gravity granting him speed. He jumped the last bit in a shower of pebbles and stones that rattled further down the steep mountainside. The disturbance did not go unnoticed, and a dozen wolves were scrambling down after him, a bleary guard stationed closer to the caverns pulling himself up and over where the water-fall thundered down behind their dens.

"What's happened?" Koga bit out, waiting for the two breathless youkai to catch their wind with an impatient growl.

He felt a sudden chill as a single name was gasped out.

"Hideki..."

'Damn.'

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Kagura watched, her eyes intense as she saw the slow procession that was bringing the old youkai home. She had climbed her way up the lookout knoll that Koga had crested earlier, and stood there like a statue, awaiting their return.

One of the escorting wolves who had stationed themselves by her side sniffed the air and sent out a low wuff of question. A long, mournful reply howled across the night, and then was abruptly silenced.

'Betrayed.'

Was it Naraku's doing, or just Katashi's jealousy? She could not be sure. One thing for certain, though, was that Hideki had been summoned to tend the northern clan-leader, and had been attacked and left for dead by the grey wolves. There was no question in Kagura's mind that it was the Jewel shards Hideki had carried for Koga that was the prize they were after. She knew instinctively that Koga's Shikon shards, the ones that had been embedded in his calves and only removed at Katashi's sneering instigation, were now gone.

She burned with a smoldering anger, knowing not whether it was hers, or Koga's. His thoughts had dimmed to a slight awareness as he followed his youkai brothers back to where they had found Hideki, beaten and bloody. As the returning party drew closer, she could see the image of a wounded ookami left broken in the dirt, a bloody testament to their betrayal. The image was being broadcast from Koga's mind, fueling the molten heat of his rage and bitterness.

Kagura's mind burned with the image, a picture she would never forget. She knew not whether the old wolf, the first being who had ever been kind to her, would survive. Her own burning anger was not of fire, but ice. The icy cold knowledge of betrayal, and the anger that would fuel her retribution.

Katashi would fall. He had hurt one of hers.

There was only one certainty in her cold rage. She would have it.

Vengeance.

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She could only touch every other stone with her left foot, it was imperative that she not let the toes of her right foot settle down on a wrong stone, or that she allow her feet to mis-step, or certain doom would assuredly follow.

Rin gasped as she nearly over-balanced, her right leg kicking out in unconscious reaction. Arms wind-milling for balance, she nearly toppled over, and was only saved by her fingers pulling at the harsh stoned wall beside her. Collecting her poise, the small girl leaned wearily against the supporting stone wall and heaved a huge sigh of relief.

She'd almost lost the game.

Taking a deep breath, she gathered her courage in her hands, her small chin thrusting forward in determination. She would make it. She would.

With a hopping skip, she hit the next square, and grinned wide at having accomplished the feat without the least risk of stepping on the wrong stone.

The hallway was bisected by another at the far end, and wide windows were spaced along the length, facing one of several inner gardens. Even though the chill of late autumn was in the air, nipping the coming of a harsh winter in its fierce breath, it did not reach the inner precincts of the castle. Many of the outer gardens had long lost their precious bounty of beautiful floral appeal, but these inner gardens were protected, so that it almost seemed as if a mild spring day bathed them in warmth. Suyo had once told her that the guardians kept the inner gardens blooming year-round, and she liked to look at them, they could be so beautiful.

A small flicker of ghostly light caught her eye, and her left foot touched the floor, unheeded. Game forgotten, she dashed over to the nearest window, her rich brown eyes wide and her small mouth parted in an amazement as the pearlescent glow of the youkai butterflies intensified to a warmer gold.

Clapping her hands, she sang out with delight. "Oh, pretty!"

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His eyes squeezed tight against the intrusion of light into the shadowy darkness of his rooms. 'Can't she leave me alone for one wretched moment?' Jaken sniffled to himself. He tried to block out that encroaching light, he really did. He was so exhausted. That stinking ningen brat had led him a merry chase this afternoon...all over the castle and through the buta pens, where he had been horrified to find her sitting in the middle of a dirty pile of squealing piglets, hugging them for all they were worth and GIGGLING as they tried to squirm out of her grasping hands.

Thankfully, the mother pig had been distracted. Buta didn't mess around when they thought their babies were in danger, and Rin had barely been saved...the irate mother's attention had been focused on HIM, grand advisor to me lord SesshouMaru, Taiyoukai of the Western Lands. He had only been flapping his arms to get Rin's attention, and he had only been screeching at her to get the hell out of the pig pen and away from certain death. Rin, of course, had ignored him, and he, of course, had ignored the pig (who was beneath his notice), until the stupid buta had decided to take an interest in HIM.

'Oh, the humiliation!'

Rin had been no help. She had just run around in circles, screaming as loud as the squealing piglets, irritating Mama Buta even more. Jaken had barely escaped down the path as the pig had taken her wrath out on the fence, broken it, and rushed after him. He had had to kilt his robes up above his knees, bawling for all he was worth, the buta a screaming fury behind him. Up past the barren gardens and right into the maw of the castle, down across the kitchens and out into the store-rooms, and not one sniveling servant or bungling guard had lifted their hands or swords to save him. They had just stood there like a bunch of startled fishes, eyes wide and mouths hanging open in shock as he ran past.

'Stupid incompetents!'

They hadn't stood there gaping long. No, they had finally done something. They had finally started laughing, and hadn't stopped.

'Oh, the humiliation!'

What a spectacle he must have been, austere brown robes kilted up around his waist, eyes bulging in fright, screeching for all he was worth. His ancestors must be mortified at the loss of face he had suffered, his innate dignity now scattered to the four winds. The whole castle was abuzz with the news of the escapade, and that it had only been by the grace of the gods, and a quick snatch-up by a startled four-armed Suyo that had saved him...

To have to be grateful to that four-armed snob was more than he could stomach. Bad enough Suyo had been left in charge of the castle, and he, Jaken, first advisor and long a most loyal---and overly humble---servant to me Lord, had been left in charge of a mere scrap of a ningen brat who just completely---

A strange noise, scratching on the edge of his delicate hearing, broke into his mournful thoughts, and he frowned in irritation. Bad enough that stupid light was intruding on his pitiful retreat to his rooms, but to be disturbed by that awful squealing sound, like a screeching pig...

'PIG?!'

He popped his head out of the covers, suddenly terrified.

There was nothing in his chambers---no scent reached his nose, even though his eyes were suddenly blinded. His pupils had expanded instinctively in the shadows, and he had to take a moment to blink them back into normal visionary range, as the light coming in through his two windows and shining past the drawn draperies of his balcony were chasing the darkness back.

'What is happening?'

He sat up in bed, drawing his little feet up to his stomach and gazing around him in awe as the light grew and grew, the nasty sound stretching across his awareness and making his poor ears ring. It was as bright as day now, and growing brighter, but the light was not as blinding yellow as the sun at fierce noon. It was pearled and laced with pale gold, and that noise, that awful, awful noise wasn't like an irrate pig's squeal at all. It was like the highest note of a tinkling chime struck and stuck on one single note. And it wasn't only that high-pitched chime that was giving him such a shiver right down to his bones, it was the aura of outraged sadness that went along with it.

'Rin!'

The girl was his charge, me Lord would skin him alive (and delight in taking his time) if anything happened to that nasty little turnip. 'Drat it all!' He really, really wanted to bury his head in the covers and ignore that awful noise, but he couldn't. The Taiyoukai, even in his mournfully long absence, would certainly know if something happened to that stupid little ningen girl, and it would be his last moments on earth if something DID happen to that stupid little ningen girl.

'Why me?'

Sniffle.

How many times had he asked himself that question? Countless times since me Lord had abandoned them to this lonely old pile of stones. His thoughts were muddled---wouldn't that damn noise STOP?!---even as he grabbed up his outer robes and pulled his black boushi down from its resting place. Grabbing up his beloved Staff of Skulls---he wouldn't leave that behind again, if he had had it, that stupid buta would have been dinner tonight, fried to a crisp and done to a turn---and hurried out of the room.

The stupid guards outside his door were nowhere to be found, and Jaken screeched with the insanity of it all. The noise was growing louder, and he could see the light creeping from under his slammed door and outlining the other doors that aligned the dimmed hallway. It was becoming unbearable, and he desperately wanted to find that stupid brat...

He hurried trhough the hall, and scrambled down the deserted stairways that led down to the floor level of this infernal maze of a castle. There was no one around, and he cursed under his breath as the claws of his feet clicked a counterpoint to that hideous ringing. Light was flooding through from the inside of the castle, so that the pale blue-white globes that dotted the upper ceiling of the castle were being drowned in a pearly golden aura that was intensifying by the moment.

He was out of breath and out of patience by the time he finally found Rin. And Suyo, the stupid kumo. He gaped out of the window at the sight of them both standing in one of the inner gardens, which held sanctuary for one of the smaller---and more useless, in Jaken's opinion---of me Lord's youkai servants. He was startled out of his selfish outrage by the blossoming light, which was blinding in the very center of the tree-ridden garden, the blooms of various flowers all but swallowed by the ghostly origin of that annoying light. The ringing had reached a level that he could not hear, only picking up the very edge of that piercing note of unending noise.

Rin, with her limited human senses, could not hear that awful sound at all, and she was dancing around like a simpleton, her hands clapping at the "Pretty 'flies!" Jaken couldn't hurry out the door fast enough, he wanted to smack that brat (but didn't dare) for being so foolish as to parade around with no shoes on. And look at Suyo, standing there with his arms splayed wide, ignoring Rin completely, the oaf.

Suyo, with his keener hearing, could probably detect the higher decibels needed to understand those useless, if pretty, butterflies' language. He must be understanding what all the damn fuss was about. Jaken was suddenly very much a fish out of water, not knowing what was going on and not liking it one bit.

Thudding his Staff on the stone path (and not making much of an impression with all the keening going on), he snapped out waspishly, "Rin! Be still! Suyo! I demand to know what is going on---"

The spider youkai turned, and the flickering fire in his blazing red eyes made Jaken freeze into stillness, his beak falling open in shock at the very raging sadness that flickered across the normally-composed and mild pink eyes.

The volume intensified, reaching a higher level, and his scaly hide was goose-bumping with nervous fear. Even Rin had stopped her twirling, and she suddenly looked frightened.

"What is it?" He hissed, anxiety bulging his yellow eyes out to a new circumference.

The glowing youkai gathered and knit, their glittering light reaching a new height in fury as their voice called across the Western Lands, igniting their blood and that of their allies with its strident, piercing sound.

Suyo's eyes, the fiery red glitter of blood sparkling with tears in the light of the butterflies, made Jaken shiver, and the three claws of both hands tightened their grip on the wood of his Staff of Skulls as true fear tugged at his quaking heart. The spider's voice was a counterpoint to the sharp call of the youkai, a single word falling between them like a stone.

"War."

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The small globe of blue-swirled whiteness was a beacon of hope to the messenger who fastened on that tiny point of intensity. Suddenly filled with a renewal of faith among the sad bitterness of defeat, the promise of that hope was beat into his tiny wings, adding strength to their faltering rhythm. The pale golden glow, which had diminished with the weariness that consumed him, so that only stark resolve drove him, started to brighten, and the lone butterfly sent out its call to the Western Lord.

The white globe flashed and expanded, becoming a trailing cloud of silver and red-hued rose, the Taiyoukai revealed to the darkened night. The kochou had flown just ahead of the swarming hordes of Saimyousho, who had kept up their chase throughout the long day and into the coming night. The early evening had brought despair, as his song was returned by fewer and fewer of his brothers and sisters, their numbers falling before the impenetrable wave of Hell's children.

His wings faltered as he heard the distinctive buzzing of their coming. He would not make it, they were nearly upon him! Red death glittered in their eyes, and he sent out a last lilting call to the Taiyoukai---at least he would be warned that they were betrayed...

Claws grasped the tiny form, and he gathered in his demonic energies, making certain that his demise would inflict the most damage it could. He would fall with a warrior's heart and the knowledge that he had not fallen alone, that his enemies would pay dearly for his death.

But the claws were suddenly ripped away, freeing him. Hissing screams rolled on the chilling wind of the night, and the Saimyousho's ominous buzzing turned into the throes of the dying. Green light flashed in and out, fanning and dazzling the weakening glow of the tiny butterfly as he was overwhelmed by the sudden, eerie quiet that surrounded him.

"Come." The Lord's voice was like the warming toll of a bell, the firm tone adding reassurance to the faltering heart of the loyal messenger. The palm, the green poisonous glow dissolving, opened, and the small youkai alighted in grateful weariness. He glowed and sang a new note, the first of his missive, anxious to get it out, but the Taiyoukai's intense golden eyes were narrowed to the far left.

"Soon." He reassured the twittering youkai, carefully placing his small ally on the steel-tipped points of the armor that encircled his maimed shoulder, where the empty sleeve of his white haori flapped in the rising winds of the night.

A distinctive glow, flickering pearl in the far distance, was almost swallowed by a thick black wave of menace behind it, the dull roar and the desperate song of the youkai butterfly sent forth on the night. In a breath's moment, they were there, the Taiyoukai's poisoned whip striking out and decimating the ranks of Saimyousho with the snap of lightening. None escaped the Lord's wrath, and the youkai allies were caught up in a singing harmony of glad reunion.

A sparkling shower of lights to the right turned their song to sorrow, as they watched one of their brethren nearly make it to the Lord's side, and die beneath the swarming insects of Hell just moments before. The Taiyoukai's golden eyes flashed red fire and a deep growl emerged from the Lord, startling the little kochou in its intensity. They sang back, spying the tell-tale light of two more of their brothers, and the Taiyoukai, the inu now enraged at the threat to his allies and servants, was there, devouring Hell's children in the snarling blood of his demon rage...

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SesshouMaru's eyes bled fury, but he kept his tone light, though the inu raged inside of him at the attack on one of his. The exhausted butterflies, their unspoken courage in the face of an overwhelming foe, refused to calm themselves until they had delivered their message.

The inu raged in sorrow at what he saw as his failure. Five...FIVE...of his loyal allies had made it to his side. The showering death of the one who hadn't was burned into his mind. The inu within howled at the betrayal, and the Taiyoukai vowed vengeance on the dark hanyou, Naraku.

'He will die beneath my claws!'

His blood surged, thundering through him, before the cooler side of his mind collared it. The baboon would die, and slowly. But the dark hanyou held unknown powers, unknown legions. His allies would be summoned, the butterfly youkai had already sent out the call to their own, their raging sorrow over the senseless deaths of their brethren demanding payment. His allies and servants would gather, and corner the white monkey in his filthy lair. Naraku's death was signed in the blood of his allies, none who touched one of his would be allowed to draw breath a moment longer than necessary, but he wouldn't go unprepared against the dark forces Naraku controlled. He well knew the power of the Shikon no Tama, and how the hanyou grasped it close to him.

But the fanged maw of vengeance had been opened, and now it would come crashing down...

The inu snarled, as the piping sounds of one of the surviving kochou interrupted his consuming thoughts. Red streaked the golden eyes, but the Taiyoukai coolly dissolved his rage at the butterfly's anxious fluttering of delicate wings.

The champagne aura of the kochou, whom he recognized as the first youkai to come to him on the very edge of that chilling swarm of insects, lightened with urgency, it's song a lilting music at odds with the imperative nature of its communication.

The blood of the inu faded from his eyes, the gold intensifying as the little youkai spoke its message, the original message from his spider-servant, Suyo. Frozen with shock, his eyes widened the merest hint, the only expression on his stilled countenance. The reddened haze of the trailing clouds that bore him and his allies back home to the Western Lands, streaking across the earth, intensified as well, speaking of the emotions he kept from his cold features.

The miko...

'Kagome.'

::Mine.::

She bore his child.

It was then, as he stood frozen, eyes brightened to a fervent light of intense emotion, that the first sounds of the widening call of his small allies came to him faintly on the breeze.

:VENGEANCE!:


	53. Chapter FiftyTwo: Fears

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, etc. (The "etc." includes money, so unless you want my beat up NKOTB poster and a neighbor's dung-producing dog as blood money, I wouldn't sue.)

WARNING: Slight Lime.

Chapter Fifty-Two (Fears)

The glow around the tall castle on the rocks pulsated with golden brilliance and subsided into flickering pearl in a rhythm as slow and steady as a heart beat. The shrill demand had subsided into a lower note, a calling of names by the butterfly youkai, bidding his allies to their side. There was a furtive edge to his lands, as if the very earth was tensing under the onslaught of upheaval and summoning. Youkai and ningen, vassal and ally, were answering the call of his lineage, their loyalty written in blood honor to the inu and the Taiyoukai who ruled them.

His father had never summoned his allies to war, there had never been a reason. The old Lord had been arrogant in his faith of his abilities, knowing that he was the strongest and Taiyoukai of the Western Lands. In the end, it had proven foolish, as the neko tribes overwhelmed and killed him in the maddened blood rage of the inu snarling defiance.

SesshouMaru kept a tight leash on the inu rage of his blood, the very blood that had devoured his father's soul until death had been welcomed. He could not keep the growl from his chest, though, a growl of disquiet. The kochou who rested on his shoulders twitched their wings in agitation, and he deliberately collared the inu, his face emotionless and unchanging even as his eyes blazed molten gold.

He began his descent, the red-tinged clouds wisping behind him into nothingness as dawn edged the sky. Thick clouds streaked over the distant horizon, speaking of coming storms in the day. This far north and west, and high into the mountains, the snow was deep, the days shortened as the icy dragon of winter threw its coils across the rocky mountains and roared its icy breath over the forested hills.

The butterflies around him took flight on their own as they drew nigh unto the castle. Their tired glow brightened as they fluttered over the battlements and down into the inner sanctuary of the castle. The surrounding song changed as their brothers returned home, safe, and the resulting joy that flowered over in a jubilating symphony almost touched through the icy barrier SesshouMaru kept over his own emotions. The glittering light that poured forth to embrace the returned would be etched on his conscious forever.

They were home.

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Miroku walked unhurriedly down the river's edge, his string of caught fish dangling from one hand while his staff tinkled merrily in the other. Shippo skipped alongside, the proud smile over his own small catch of two fish beaming across his happy little face. The three men who had gone fishing with them turned aside as they came past their huts, to be met at the door by their wives or sisters. The rings on the houshi's staff summoned other women to part the bamboo mats that covered their doorways and smile sweetly on the handsome, black-haired man. Miroku's smiles were impartial, but the prettiest of the lasses were given a special twinkle in deeply blue eyes that made them blush from the impure thoughts that crossed their minds each and every time the indigo-eyed houshi crossed their path.

Shippo didn't even spare Miroku a look of disgust, used to the houshi's ways---and the way women were always acting around him. The little fox cub was busy beaming with his own small triumph. Okaa-san would enjoy the little fishies he had caught for her, and with his own paws! She would be so proud of him, and maybe, just maybe, she would light up with one of her old, all-over smiles, so that he could see even her soul warming in her beautiful brown eyes, instead of the lingering sadness that seemed to touch them, not even dispelling when she did smile softly at him.

Miroku's thoughts were distracted as well, but by a particularly curvaceous woman who had sauntered out of her small cottage and to the river's edge. She gave him a coy little glance out of the corner of her eye before bending over at the water's edge to dip and fill her empty bucket. Miroku's dark brows shot up and the blue in his eyes deepened as he took in the amply-fleshed rear that curved so enticingly from his vantage point.

The wench winked at him out of the corner of her eye, and he actually blinked. A smile curved the sensual mouth, and he bowed his head in acknowledgment of the girl's beauty as he passed. His gaze lingered, and was only drawn at the last by the old miko who cleared her throat as they came nigh unto her small hut.

"Houshi-sama." Kaede's dark brown eye held a twinkle even as her gruff voice recalled him to his senses. Miroku couldn't stop the slow flush that crept over his cheeks, though he had done nothing wrong. 'A man must always admire beauty...else the kami would not have given him eyes to see and a mind to appreciate fine detail and the visionary delight of a woman's---er---assets...'

"Miko-sama." He returned, an amused flash in his blue eyes and a helpless shrug rippling across the powerful frame hidden by the dark blue robes he wore. He held up his brace of fish as a peace offering, and Kaede slightly nodded, her expression wry.

"Look, Lady Kaede!" Shippo jigged up the steps, waving his own two fish at her. "I caught 'em all by myself!"

"Ye did well, Shippo." Kaede told him gravely. "They look nice and fat, and shall I clean them for ye for dinner?"

"Not for me, Kaede." Shippo told her just as gravely. "They're for you and okaa-san."

"That was very thoughtful of ye, Shippo." Kaede said, extending her hand for them. But Shippo hugged the fish to his little body, and pleaded,

"Lemme show okaa-san first!"

"She'll be proud of ye, Shippo." Kaede nodded, her eyes understanding. Shippo dashed in through the bamboo curtain, leaving Miroku to deposit his own fair catch in the old priestess's waiting hand.

"Ye have done well, too, Miroku." She hefted the sizeable weight of the houshi's string.

There was a beguiling look in Miroku's eyes as he bowed deeply. "I would offer you half, my lady, if you would offer to clean them."

Kaede snorted at the irrepressible monk. "Get ye inside while I clean these. Koharu has come to bear Kagome comfort, now that she is in her confinement."

"Is Kagome doing better?" Miroku paused, his expression showing the worry that lay deep in his eyes for the young girl.

Kaede sighed, her brown eye distant as she gazed over the greyed waters of the channel that bordered the hut. "She is well enough, though she tires easy. The babe is restless, and keeps her awake."

Miroku was troubled, and tried to phrase his question delicately. He was a man, after all, and was not privy to the troubles of childbirth. It was a woman's mystery, and at times he felt helpless, like now. "Lady, do you think that since the child could be youkai that it could be...disturbing...Kagome more?"

A worn palm grasped his strong arm in a reassuring grip. "Do not worry ye, Miroku. Kagome is a strong girl."

Miroku frowned, looking toward the hut. "She does not carry as easily as Koharu does..."

"Women are different, and that is enough for ye to know." Kaede said smartly, although she patted his arm before taking her leave, fish in hand.

Miroku was still frowning as he went up the steps and brushed the bamboo aside to enter the old miko's hut. Kagome and Shippo had been sharing the priestess's small home, while he and Koharu lived just past the small spring from whence Kaede drew her water. The two-room cot the houshi had designed and built with the willing help of the villagers was not far from the old priestess's hut, as Koharu desired to be close to the elderly miko, who might need her assistance as a healer.

"I caught them all by myself!" He caught Shippo's proud boast.

Kagome's smile was sweet as she hugged the little kitsune cub to her. "That was well done, Shippo. I'm proud of you."

"Miroku!" Koharu rose to her feet and came to give the houshi a warm hug and a feather-light kiss on the cheek. Miroku breathed in the herbal-earth scent of her hair and tightened his arm around her thickened waist even as he leaned his ringed staff against the wall by the doorway.

Kagome watched them, a small curve touching her lips, but Miroku saw a bit of sad wistfulness in her eyes when she looked at them. Blue eyes compassionate, Miroku loosened his hold on Koharu somewhat and grasped the young miko's hand to bow over it with the grace that could charm a goddess. "Kagome-sama. You are looking as beautiful as ever."

Kagome shook her head at him, her smile wry. Shippo gave the irrepressible houshi a green roll of his eyes before hopping off of Kagome's knee. "I'm gonna take my fish to Kaede, okaa-san." He said by way of leave, and scampered out of the hut with a flick of his sand-coppered tail before Kagome could nod permission.

"Kami, he has so much energy." Koharu sighed. Her white fingers splayed across the slight bulge of her waist, and she looked up at Miroku with a twinkle in her warm brown eyes. "Do you think our son will have that much, houshi-sama?"

'Our son...'

His deeply blue eyes glinted and he pressed his lips to Koharu's cheek, his whisper in her ear making her blush furiously and giggle as his bead-wrapped palm joined hers over the delightful potential in her womb. "Our son will be perfect, as you are, my own."

There was a faint rustle beyond them, and Miroku's head jerked up, his eyes immediately on Kagome. Her head was down, the midnight locks that curled over her forehead hiding her expression. Her hands, though, told a telling tale as they pleated and tightened in the white fabric of the draping white sleeves of her kimono.

Disengaging from Koharu, Miroku swiftly went to Kagome's side and knelt by the smaller girl. She did not look up, even then, and so he used the fingertips of his right hand to pull her chin up. "Kagome-sama?"

Her eyes were misty, although she blinked them rapidly to keep the tears back. He could see the shadows that circled her eyes, a testament to her sleepless nights. She was overly pale and drawn, and he jumped, letting her chin go, when her belly rippled under the draping fabric of her kimono and then seemed to distend and rebound.

She smiled faintly as Koharu laughed at his startled look. Then Kagome's expression changed as she winced as another movement rippled across the wide expanse of her belly. Kagome stirred and shifted uncomfortably, drawing her knees from under her to stretch out at an awkward angle.

Koharu was suddenly there, pulling a cushion forward for Kagome to lean back against and helping the girl to lie back. Kagome winced and turned slightly before finding a better position on one hip. The ripples stopped, and one of Kagome's hands came to lie lightly across the heavy mound as Koharu fetched blankets to cover her with.

"I'm not cold." Kagome protested faintly, but the other girl ignored her. Miroku watched them both, unable to hide the concern in his blue eyes.

"You need to try and sleep though." Koharu said. "Let me make you comfortable."

"I'm not tired." Kagome's protest was faint, the drawn circles under her eyes revealed the lie.

Koharu just ignored her, pulling more cushions aside to make a comfortable nest for the breeding woman. Miroku kept silent, watching Koharu's almost-motherly fussing over Kagome, who was actually breaking open a yawn on another muffled protest. "I'm fine, I'm fine..." She murmured, eyes blinking. She shifted again, so that she lay on her back, her stomach a hill that she sprawled around. Koharu patted a white hand and stood up. Kagome was already nodding off in numbed exhaustion, and Koharu motioned for Miroku to be quiet as they left the hut.

Miroku picked up his staff stiffly, so that the rings would not jangle together and wake the sleeping miko. He slipped outside, Koharu grabbing his free hand in hers as they stepped down off of the steps.

Lady Kaede was just outside, a basket of newly gutted fish over one arm. She was speaking to a village woman, who urged the old priestess to come and check on her son's recovery. Kaede glanced at them, her questioning gaze answered by Koharu.

"Kagome's sleeping...for now." Kaede nodded, and held out the basket. Koharu grasped it in her free hand, and assured the older miko that she would cook dinner for them both. "You go to check on Takeshi?"

"Aye." Kaede said. "I'll come when I'm able, and thank ye for making up the fish. I'll send Shippo to ye, if that's all right."

"Of course, Kaede-sama." Miroku answered, looking around for the little kit.

"He's off with some of the other children." Kaede answered his unasked question.

"Lady..." The peasant woman, a middle-aged mother with a pretty blue kerchief over her black hair, interrupted anxiously. Kaede nodded, and the woman bowed to them all, before hurrying off with the older priestess.

Miroku matched his steps to Koharu's, which were much smaller, and they walked arm-in-arm down the little by-path to their own small hut. Built back away from Kaede's, which stood at the lower entrance of the white steps of the shrine, he had found a pretty spot where the trees arched over and gave their home a bit more privacy than the others in the village. Koharu had cleared a small patch for a garden she meant to start next spring, and he had carefully lain stone in a path to the small spring that stood between their home and Kaede's, so that there would be no mischance of a stumble in the dark of night if either of them needed to come to Kaede's quick call.

The trees were bare of shielding leaves, but their black arms still rose protectively over the roof of their home. Miroku had no small amount of smug pride in the house he had built for Koharu. It was a neat, two-roomed cot, with a raised porch on the outside, so that Koharu might sit and sort her herbs in the cooler evenings of summer if she liked.

Koharu sighed softly as they neared home, and Miroku's hand tightened in hers in acknowledgment. "I'm so happy, Miroku." She said, whisper-soft, as if she might draw the attention of some evil spirit, who would be jealous of a mortal's happiness.

"I, as well, my own." He answered her, and was surprised that it was true. There was a certain contentment in knowing that he was home, that he was walking up the steps that he himself had built for his future, and that he was holding open the woven bamboo for his lady to go in. The fire was a banked ring of coals in the center, and Koharu quickly knelt to brighten it up with wood he fetched for her from the pile he had stocked weeks ago.

The fire was soon crackling to life, delighted with the replenished fodder as Koharu expertly laid a few choice cuts of wood across its coals. He sat on the raised dais that extended across one side of the front room and watched intently as Koharu neatly pulled the basket to her and set rice to boiling and soup to simmering. She had a dextrous hand, and cut the fish he had caught into neat slices, tumbling an assortment of vegetables into the flat skillet as she cooked the fish in their own juices.

Koharu raised her brown eyes to his, and smiled at him. The freckles that danced across her white skin stood out against the orange glow the fire lent her features. She blushed slightly at his gaze, and mouthed the words he had come to treasure.

"I love you."

The fire popped, and the moment was broken. Miroku sighed as Koharu giggled, the giggle which could really send him over the edge. It had been so long...

Koharu fussed over the cook-fire for a moment before standing up and making her way to his side. His arms opened automatically as she sank gratefully beside him. Her curves were more rounded, her determination to bear twins had given added weight to the lithe form, but he did not mind as some men might. She was softness against him, and he held her close as they both watched the dance of flames as the fish simmered and the delicious odors rose to fill the small room.

He brushed the long black hair aside and kissed the nape of her neck. She sighed in contentment and leaned further into him. "Miroku, I am so happy. It scares me sometimes..."

"You do not have to be afraid, Koharu." Miroku said, amusement lacing his voice. "I am here."

'But for how long?'

The question hovered between them, and both chose to ignore it, savoring, instead, the companionship and warmth that lay between them right now. The evil that was Naraku, the uneasy uncertainty about his own future, and whether he would survive the Wind Tunnel burned into his palm, as his father and father's father had not, were easily forgotten in the warm twilight that slowly crept over the cottage as the sun threw its last weak light against the gathering clouds that blanketed the horizon.

Worries were forgotten as they held each other...the faint unease Miroku felt over Kagome's growing listlessness, the sadness that often crept over the young miko and did not banish from the depths of her deep brown eyes...the growing worry over InuYasha and Sango, who they had not heard word from in over five months...the constant watchfulness, wondering what foul plots the dark hanyou was contemplating...why had he not attacked the village? Had the hanyou, instead, turned his attentions toward Sango and InuYasha, alone and by them selves, wherever they were? There was no word, either, from the Taiyoukai, InuYasha's brother, and Miroku did not believe that the inu-youkai would simply abandon Kagome if he had knowledge of the truth, that she was carrying his child. Although he had discussed the possibilities with Kaede many a time, neither of them had ever pressed the issue upon Kagome, who kept silent in regards to the father of her child. She would stare, though, sometimes, her eyes deep and sad, and Miroku wanted to ask her if she thought of InuYasha, or of SesshouMaru...

Koharu turned in his embrace, and laid her fingers along his lips. His gaze dropped, eyes warming as they stared at her. Her love for him was brimming in her deeply brown eyes, and he tightened his hold around her, feeling a stir of interest from that part of him that was always interested. She giggled that devastatingly husky giggle and his manhood tightened in response. He nudged her head up with his shoulder, and kissed her long and lingeringly on the wide, sweet lips. Koharu's eagerness matched his own, and he groaned into her mouth as her fingers feathered over his broad shoulders and down his arms. They shifted their weight, coming closer, matched desire singing along their blood.

'Kami, it's been so long...'

His tongue mapped out a line across her full mouth before sliding in to dance with hers. Koharu moaned into the wet heat of his mouth, and his hands tuned possessive as they gripped her shoulders, sliding the deep vee of her white kimono open so that he might---

"Hiya, Miroku!"

They sprang apart, Miroku pushing Koharu behind him unconsciously so that he was between her and danger. But danger had no part in the small kitsune cub who had popped his rusty head in the doorway. Green eyes widened as he took in a deep sniff of dinner and arousal. Shippo had the grace to flush beet-red before his rusty head disappeared.

Interruption dispersed, Miroku looked hopefully back at Koharu, but the girl was already sliding gracefully up from the dais to check on dinner. The moment was gone, not to be reclaimed, and his expression turned rueful.

Domesticity had no room for romance.

Sigh.

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Kaede's brow furrowed with concern as she watched the restless movements of the young girl who shared her hut. The kitsune cub, Shippo, had awoken with the troubled stirring of his adopted okaa-san, and crept over to the old miko's side, concern written over his little face.

"Lady Kaede..." His little tail twitched, touched rust by the embers of the banked fire. The nights were chilled, and the old miko kept the fire lit day-long. There was the hint of coming rain in the air, she could smell it in the icy breath that roamed down from the west and north. It was unusual for this time of year, as normally this late month, as the year was dying and the new springing forth, was one of the driest in the monsoonal tides of their island weather. She could feel, though, a drawing in the land. It was faint, something stirring in the inner recesses of the earth, a whispering echo shimmering across her old soul.

It could be that that distant drawing could also be calling down a storm from the western mainland, and that the weather patterns might be dislodged by the energies that were, even now, disturbed in their cycle. She could feel an ache in her old bones, her ankle---the one she had twisted as a child, and displaced a bone, and suffered a long time to repair---was pained, boding of damp cold as accurate as any weather sense. The very land was restless, and the feel of it disturbed her.

But not, though, as much as what the poor child was suffering. That was a problem right before her, one that she could see and still not seem to find a cause for.

The babe was strong in the womb, and Kagome a healthy girl. Though she had gained weight quickly, almost shockingly, it did not worry the old miko as much as it might have. Women were different, some carried their babes high, their weight slight, others carried lower, and their hips firmed to support the additional burden. She had been healer and midwife to the village for most of her life---she could remember trotting alongside her mother, who had served as the village's midwife before her. Her mother---a stern-faced woman with her life mapped out on her features much as Kaede's was now imprinted across her own---had insisted that she attend every birth, no matter her age or her youth. Strangely, though, her older sister Kikyo had never been summoned to a birthing woman's side, to learn the arts of midwifery and delivery.

But then Kikyo had been selected from a tender age for special attention, her purity and innocense cherished like a fine gem. From earliest childhood, Kikyo had been kept seperate---

"Miko-sama?"

Kaede's wandering thoughts snapped shut on her sister, as she looked down at the small kitsune who had laid a trembling paw on her white sleeve, concern and a hint of trepidation written on his cute little face. His green eyes were wide, staring at her, and she saw a faint trace of rose-edged white glow fade from the mirror of their surface, a reflection of the aura that had glowed momentarily around the old priestess as she forgot herself.

'Age holds little wisdom if ye forget it.' Kaede commented drily to herself, her gnarled hand curving over the small kitsune's back and patting him in reassurance.

"Lady Kaede, why were you glowing like that?" Shippo hunched under her hand, not that reassured. The poor little kit was uncertain. His little family had been broken apart, his adopted okaa-san was under strain, heart-lost and lonely, no matter how much the girl put a brave face on it and smiled stiffly, pretending a cheer that did not dance in her warm brown eyes as it had in the past.

'He sees and understands more than we credit him.' Kaede thought even as her voice rumbled soothingly, "I was just distracted, Shippo. Do not worry ye over it."

"I'm scared." The little kitsune ducked his head, whispering that small admission to his little paws, which clenched into fists as if he might grab his fear and choke it out.

"Kagome will be fine, little one. She is just weary." Kaede assured him.

Shippo ducked his head and said so softly that Kaede almost mistook the words. "She glows, too."

Kaede stiffened, her work-worn hand stilling on the kit's furry back unconsciously. She formed her questions carefully, not wanting to frighten the little youkai more. "Ye say Kagome glows like I did?"

"Yes, and no." Shippo trembled slightly. "I see her colors..."

'The child sees the girl's aura? It is not surprising, he is youkai, but I did not know one so young could see them...'

"Ye can see the colors in people, ye say?" Kaede's arms curled around to bring the little kitsune into her broad lap. His eagerness to be cuddled said more of his fear than anything else. Shippo was an independent little kit, insisting that he was too big to be held close---until he demanded it with a willingness to be fussed over that was more for the gratification than the comfort.

"Of course." Some of that independence came out in his scornful reply. He turned his head to look at her, and wrinkled his little nose, his fangs briefly flashing. "You're white...and a bit pink."

Kaede hid a smile. Out of the mouths of babes...he had perfectly described her own small gift of miko energy. The white was for her purity as a priestess, the pink the hint of her small spiritual gift.

"And Kagome?" She urged, keeping her tone light.

Shippo hunched his shoulders again, and Kaede soothed him with her hands, combing the little fur with a light stroke and sending a small amount of calming energy through her worn palms and into his troubled spirit. Under her touch, the small youkai relaxed enough to speak his worry aloud.

"Okaa-san...Kagome...she used to be strong." He paused a moment, and her cupped palms around his little back flowed more of the calming influence into him so that he could continue. "Okaa-san is bright, white and pink and fiery rose and it hurts to look at her." His eyes scrunched up, almost as if he could picture the brilliantly glowing aura that was the girl's large soul.

"And now?" Kaede asked quietly. None of the stirring disquiet of her heart showed on her voice, which was roughened by time, but it's very gruffness was soothing like water falling over rocks.

"She's sick." Shippo said, trembling again. It took Kaede some moments to relax him, her power wrapping around him like a hug, sending whispers of peace across his little soul.

"Tell me." She laced the words with a small bit of power, a compulsion to speak and not hold back with hesitation. Shippo, being a little kit, would not know of it as a full youkai would, and he needed his worries unburied and off of his little soul.

"It's angry..." He tried to describe what he saw, the smoldering fuchsia and flaring pink-tinged sparks that swirled across the brilliancy of Kagome's aura. It was almost as if the very power held within the girl's soul was simmering and twisting in on itself, growing and flowing back into her and around her. It seethed and glowered with brilliancy and POWER, and made him quail away from it, frightened for his poor okaa-san.

The little fox trembled in the old miko's lap, thinking of that twisting, maddened aura with a shiver that welled up from the bottom of his little soul. It was angry.

Very, very angry...

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The old miko slipped outside of her hut, the the bamboo curtain whispering as it slid back into place behind her. The night was chilled and dry, but there was something in the air that told her of coming rain before dawn---perhaps ice, if it was cold enough.

Letting out her breath in a puff of whitening wisps, Kaede shuffled down the steps that fronted her small hut and made her way stiffly to the tall wooden gate that towered just in front of the white stone steps that led up to the shrine above. Placing one age-gnarled hand on the heavy wood of the gate, she felt a calming strength flow from the wood and into her troubled mind, soothing her with its presence and timelessness.

What Shippo had revealed to her had caused an ache in her heart for the young girl who had become as a daughter to her. The poor child already had to bear so much. How could she unveil this new worry that nibbled at her, making her fear for the girl's very life, let alone the small life within her womb?

For if Shippo spoke truth, than Kagome's miko powers were not content to stay idle. Kagome's large soul, inherited from her sister Kikyo, was a source of unknown power and force. By bearing a youkai child, Kagome risked injury to that child if she used her sacred energy; the purification properties of uncontrolled miko power would prove devastating to a defenseless babe in the womb.

But the strength of a miko was inherent, it did not sit still. Kaede knew how her own small gift could expand and grow with need. She had used that fact in the past, deliberately channeling it with mediation and prayer, using the time to allow her energy to grow to a level that she might need in battle or a major healing. She had assumed, wrongly, that any unused energy would dissipate in time, scattering unused into the force that ran through all life, or to the plane of existence where souls were sheltered and from which the sacred energy of the priestesses was called forth.

As Kagome's pregnancy had progressed, so had the girl's listlessness and weariness. Kaede had attributed a lot of it to the easy depression that could come with child-bearing, accrediting the young girl's sleeplessness and lassitude to the restlessness of the babe in her womb, even assumed the morning nausea that had not abated was due to the fact that the child was half-demon and might be strange to an onna's body. There was also the fact that Kagome had been left alone, to fend for herself, with not even her family or closest friends around her to comfort and shelter her.

'The burdens the poor child carries would---'

A small noise broke through her thoughts and the silent stillness of the night. Kaede scanned the darkened village for danger, muscles tensed and waiting. The noise came again, and she relaxed as a branch scraped against another once more. She was seeing ghosts everywhere, and the constant watchfulness was getting to her.

'We all are burdened with worries right now.' Shaking her head at her own foolishness, the old priestess withdrew her hand from the shrine gate and turned back to the small hut where the young girl lay sleeping, unaware of the danger in which she lay. If what the little kitsune said was true, than Kagome's miko energies were simmering and boiling just under the surface. By not using them and denying them, the girl might be poisoning herself.

Kagome's sleep was restless, and Kaede had not liked the look of her, or the dry parchment of her skin. It might only be a small fever, claiming the girl's body with the abrupt change in weather, but the old priestess felt a stirring unease that it might be something more dangerous...

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Kaede's palm touched the dry, tight skin with worry. The girl moved restlessly under the light touch, murmuring in protest. Kaede pulled a soft cloth from the bucket at her side, wringing out the excess water before laying it over the girl's white brow.

Eyes flew open at the touch of the cool, wet cloth, and Kaede stared compassionately down into the feverish brown orbs that blinked back at her. Kagome's brow wrinkled, and she whispered hoarsely, "Mama?"

Kaede's old heart tightened at the raw need of the question, before laying her worn hand over Kagome's pale cheek. "Hush, child. Ease ye self. It is I, Kaede."

The brown eyes closed, and she turned her head away. The cloth dipped across her cheek and fell into the dry black hair that lay alongside the young girl's cheek. Kaede retrieved the cloth, which was dry from the heat that arose from Kagome's skin. Dipping it back in the cool water, she patiently placed it across the girl's forehead, draping it so that her turned cheek was covered as well.

"Ye must rest, child." Kaede urged, keeping the concern from her voice. She had watched the night pass and the young girl's restless sleep grow into a feverish tossing of heated dreams and haunting nightmares. Kagome kept whimpering about "vengeance", which made the old miko uneasy. Now that she could see the signs, the priestess was truly feared for the girl's safety, and felt helpless in the face of the fevers that held Kagome in their grip. She did not know how to treat the cause, how she might drain off the excess power that was poisoning Kagome's body. She could only treat the symptoms, and pray to the kami for a miracle.

For only a miracle could save her.

"Rest, child, rest." The old miko whispered it like a prayer, and was grateful when the young girl slipped back into dreams, but the pleading whisper of a single name on the dear child's lips made her heart weep with the lost sound of it.

"SesshouMaru..."

The girl called for him, but who knew if the icy Lord of the Western Lands would ever hear her. Or would care to.

"Rest, child, rest."

'And may the kami grant you life...'

For it was in their hands now.


	54. Chapter FiftyThree: Price

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, etc. Rumiko Takahashi does. This story is for entertainment purposes only.

A/N: On S'Spark, , and blah means thoughts, blah. means thoughts heard from others, ::blah:: means vocal inu speech, and :blah: means mental inu speech. On , 'blah' means thoughts, ...blah... means thoughts heard from others, and inu speech designations remain the same. Enough blah-blah, on to the chapter. ;P

WARNING: A bit o' Lime and Language. No one under 17, please. (Word edit on )

Chapter Fifty-Three (Price)

The wind was icy and biting this high in the mountains. The sky was sullen and grey---no sunlight penetrated the thick cloud-cover that hung heavy on the mountains that surrounded the castle. The jagged peaks were hidden by a thick, creeping haze, and he could feel the cold moisture that hovered, waiting to be unleashed sometime later in the day.

Closing the golden light of his eyes against the sullen scene, he allowed his awareness to stretch outward across his domain. The slow beat of the kochou's summoning call was as slow and regular as a heartbeat, and like a heart, it was pulling in the very blood of the Western Lands to its center. He could feel the stirring of massive armies coming to his call, both ningen and youkai allies were bestirring themselves and readying for war. There would be no turning back.

Underneath it all, he could feel the restless stirring of the earth itself. The youki of the Western Lands, inheritance of his blood, was being evoked as well. The raising of his inu anger was gathering strength, and the drawing call of the kochou, inevitably liked to nature, was affecting the forces and energies around them. The summoning was calling even to the the earth beneath. If he chose, he could follow the magnetic lines of power outward, swirling in like a cyclic hurricane with the castle as its center, even tapping into the stormy straights of the Sea of Japan that seperated them from the mainland. Faintly, he could trace the aerial lines that summoned the heavy clouds that lay gathered over his domain, heavy with water and snow.

Even the weather currents were disturbed by the summoning of his strength to his side...

Drawing in his awareness, he ignored the spiralling power that drew in around him. He waited calmly until everything outside of him, and inside of him was stilled into silence, the placid waters of his mind laying without a ripple to mar their surface. Once he had achieved the intense focus he needed for this summoning, so that even the inu within him was silent and respectful---if tense and irritated---he allowed his awareness to expand once more, but this time only inside of his mind.

'There.'

A thin thread, no thicker than spider's silk, the delicacy of which hid the sinewy strength that lay within. It stretched from his "body", though the ethereal image was distorted in this plane. Swirling grey clouds, his own idea of the "overworld"---the empty nothingness that was where dreams and visions were sought, where men and fools traveled, knowing and unknowing, in a place where they might touch another's mind, or seek the gods to touch theirs in prayer or meditation, where thoughts and mental pictures solidified at the merest flicker of thought---the dreamer's idyll.

He pictured the thread as it would seem to him, and gave it more strength---a mere seeming, he understood, but one that had some strange basis in reality. Without thought, his own form took on substance, the image of how he saw himself.

Flexing both hands---for in this "overworld" plane of thought and mental imagining, he was not maimed in the left one, but had both arms, and for a moment was distracted as his eyes streaked red over the claws that were no more but here were curling across and twining around the spider's silk. He knew that his own body was standing statue-still on the uppermost Tower of his castle, with unseeing eyes and awareness turned inward, unfeeling of the icy kiss of the rising wind that howled and moaned around the Tower.

Focusing once more, he pulled his awareness to that delicate thread that tied him to the miko, Kagome. Feeling its sinewy texture between his claws and knowing it was but a mental acknowledgment of what he WOULD feel if he had had such a thread in his true hands, he allowed the doubled awareness to dissolve and focused on why he had come to this plane.

'Miko...'

The inu seethed, but was silent.

He tugged slightly on the thread that bound him to her, and sent a shred of thought skittering across it like a rippling tremor, twinging it like a note plucked from a guitar or lute. In a breath's moment, he could feel the faint essence of her, and the inu within him stirred in recognition of what it thought was his...

He touched on something that was confusing to him...joy and sadness, acceptance and denial, resignation and defiance. There was there also a bit of the overwhelming, an aura whose strength was almost breathtaking in its beauty and purity. For a moment, he allowed it to enfold him, swaying over him like a tsunami, and he felt a single second of joyous recognition, to where his soul had found a missing part of it and felt completed and whole, and the exquisite harmony of it was almost painful in its sense-shattering perfection.

But his mind was still in denial, and he withdrew himself into a colder awareness, more comforting to him in its familiarity, and if he felt a slight regret over dissolving that incredible union, the remorse was buried and ignored under the more logical side of his mind that refused to acknowledge it or what it might mean to him.

With a mental voice that did not pass sound through his lips, but which he pictured in this overworld plane as speech, he called out her name, demanding her attention.

"KAGOME."

There was a slight, tentative touch of awareness, a feather's brush, a questing and a seeking, across his. He seized on that mental confusion, and drew it closer in curving claws, picturing the thread that lay between his hands as a leash to draw her closer.

She was suddenly there, her confusion plain, a touch of fear vibrating along the rippling purity of her aura-wrapped mind before she recognized him, or his soul's touch on hers.

The disturbed image solidified into the beautiful young miko who had captivated his senses, and the inu within him snarled with recognition.

:Mine!:

With amusement, he noticed that the girl Kagome saw herself clothed in the green and white outfit that he now recognised as coming from her time, but that he had always thought too revealing and showed the status of her as his brother InuYasha's whore. He disliked the shortness of her fuku, and a growl spread through him, making his golden eyes bleed for a moment. His claws curled over her shoulders, the tips tangling in the thick brush of her midnight hair.

Her brown eyes, as deep and intense as he remembered, widened upon recognizing him, and her whisper curled between them as she put name to him.

"SesshouMaru..."

The inu reared up and his fangs gleamed. ::Mine.::

Mental thought was physical action on this plane, and she suddenly broke away from him, putting distance between them. He dropped his claws to his sides, the cooler side of his mind taking over so that the gold of his eyes chilled once more into a remote detachment.

He looked at her, waiting. She had her hands fisted at her sides and her head bowed, so that the whorls of her black bangs hid her expression from him. When she did, finally, look up and glare at him with an intensity of emotion in the dark depths of her brown eyes, he was taken aback by her words.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?"

The anger and pain were intense, and he was momentarily stunned by the power of the emotion behind it. For a mere ningen to have such strength was unknown---

'Not unknown. For Kagome has power that she does not even comprehend.'

"What are you talking about?" She glared at him. He was mildly surprised that she had heard his thoughts as words, but it was not unknown. And in the overworld, where thought was action, even more so.

"I am here now." He replied coldly.

She looked---astonished. Then annoyed. He had forgotten how easily her emotions were read, and how amusing she was.

"That doesn't exactly tell me where you've been, now does it?" She snapped at him, her annoyance fanned to anger by the amused glint in his golden eyes. She stirred uncomfortably when his eyes glowed over her biting sarcasm, but she crossed her arms over her white shirt and set her jaw stubbornly.

'The wench is surprising.' He was not overly angry at her stubborn pride, in fact, he felt a smidgen of admiration for the little miko who dared to stand up to him, even though he could read her fear in the trembling of her small body. Ningen emotions were so easily sensed.

"I am not a wench." She tossed her head, brown eyes narrowed. The rustle of her black tresses across her cheek distracted him, and his golden eyes arrowed on the flaring crescent mark of his claiming. It pulsed with a darkly pink and fuchsia light in time with her heartbeat, and there was something in it that called to him, desired him, sought him...

Eyes narrowing in calculation, he deliberately relaxed his proud stance. He allowed a certain softness to glide over his cold features. The aura of seductive command brightened around him as he deliberately pulled his aura into one of coaxing desire. The youki around him shimmered, and he focused all of his devastating beauty and blatantly sexual appeal on the young woman before him. Her eyes widened, and her lips trembled as she felt that powerful pull toward him, felt the blood singing in her ears...

He would not be denied.

The crescent mark on her neck flared with new fire, and he bent his considerable energies to it, calling out for her to come to him. An unseen wind fluttered the long silk of his hair, and his mouth curved sensuously as he bent that demand to her like a lover's whisper of promise, a Siren's summons to enfold the girl's senses and capture her in incontestable desire. His powerful body spoke of a promise, of a need, of desire realized and thirst quenched, but the golden eyes above the sensual promise of his lips were cold and hard.

Manipulative.

Her small frame trembled, and he could see the goose bumps chasing across her white skin. She was losing the battle, and longing filled her soul. She took a single step closer, the small step dragged as if through honey. Her eyes were wide, her breathing light and fast, her heartbeat a fluttered quickening. That step was all he needed to know that he had her...

:MINE.: The inu suddenly reared up, howling within him, and he was there, before her, with the speedy suddenness of thought, his claws curling over her shoulders, his tail coming about and around to wrap around the small curve of her back so that she could not flee his embrace. She raised her soft lips up to him, and he studied her delicate face for the merest moment---the flush on her pale cheek, the delicate fan of her curling lashes as her eyes closed, the trembling pink petals of her trembling lips and the delicate curve of her jaw, the midnight curl of her bangs that kissed along her forehead. Her body was slight, the curve of her small fingers as they tightened in his haori were a warmth he could not deny, either. Passion sprang from her, melting her resistance, and his own desire tightened in answer. Gold glinted across his hard eyes and he bent his head, to claim her lips with his own in a fierce demand of surrender.

The inu roared inside of him, spurning his blood to a boiling crash of heated desire. She was HIS, his female, his woman, his mate...

The golden lure of his eyes turned to a fire of wanting, and Kagome shivered in his arms, feeling it's hot torch across her mind. His claws tightened possessively, and his tail drew her closer, so that her heated core was dragged against the fierce need in his loins. Her hands tightened against the curve of his arms, clutching the white fabric of his haori's sleeves as if an anchor to the whirling spin of desire that whirled and tunneled through both of them.

::MINE.:: The inu snarled, and he bent to brand his claim across her mouth.

But Kagome's eyes sprang open from that primitive snarl, and the spell of desire that he had woven around her was broken by that summary appellation. Her hands tightened, but not in a desire to pull him closer, but in order to push him away. A cry escaped her, like the small cry of a cornered animal, and she turned her head as his lips sought hers. His mouth grazed fire against her pale cheek, and the breath hissed out of him as his golden eyes flashed crimson with the denial.

'MIKO!' He growled at her, and she struggled in the tight clench of his claws as they dug into her arms. A pained mew escaped her at the fierce grip, and he immediately loosened his hold the merest bit, so that she might not feel the piercing sting of his claws on her delicate skin. Her hands pushed feebly at him, and the demonic blood thundered in his ears, demanding release, possession, fulfillment.

"No..." She breathed, her smaller body shuddering against his, the unshed tears washing her brown eyes brilliant.

...Not like this!... Her mind was open before him as if she had made that whisper of anguished thought aloud as speech. His heart clenched in answer to the pain that wreathed her mental "voice", and he snarled, the inu uncaring. He would MAKE her care, MAKE her bow to him, her Lord, her Master, her Mate...

He had no right.

His claws uncurled as his tail slipped from around her gasping waist. The cooler side of his nature surged forth to collar the raging inu, and he stepped back, away from her, away from the intoxicating feel of her, the call of her, the scent of her, the nearness and closeness and intense NEED of her...

A small sob broke from the girl as he pushed her away from him, to stagger back and bend her head and curl her right fist to her breast, the other to knead the green fabric of her fuku in poignant distress. A flicker of remorse skimmed across the golden splendor of his eyes and was gone as the more familiar and natural reserve of emotional withdrawal seeped into them. Coldly, he collared the screaming fury of his inu blood, stamping it ruthlessly down, so that he resembled the cold statue of a beautifully remote and cruel angel once more.

...How could he do that again?...

SesshouMaru's frozen features showed none of the chaotic reactions that were churning through him at her stabbing thought. How could the miko see him as anything other than cold and heartless, manipulating her to his will, inflaming her desire so that he could gain a paltry revenge on his hanyou brother? A revenge that seemed as pointless, in light of the revelation of their shared inu blood, as his contempt for the half-breed bastard had been.

His eyes reddened for a mere moment as the inu howled defiantly.

'But she is MINE...'

Could she deny the tie between them? A bond that called to him, whispered in his deepest sleep and made the inu within him restless? The mark of the half-moon on her neck was more than just a mere talisman of his claiming. They were linked somehow, and for all of his searching in dusty parchment and moldy tombs he had not been able to define it.

He had begun a calculated plan of ruthless vengeance; the girl had only been a pawn in the game. But she had touched upon some hidden part of him, and he had not taken into account how much SHE would affect him...

And yet, she loved his brother, he could not deny it---or the pain the memory of her calling out InuYasha's name caused him. The memory was branded across his mind...her fragile softness held embraced against him as the steam gently wafted through the heated bath around them, the rippling swirls of water surrounding their joined bodies, his claws tracing the delicate line of her cheek as he bent his head over her so that his white hair, heavy with the damp drag of the water that touched the ends, curtained her beautiful face, a dawning amazement of the treasure he had held so close and who had betrayed the first cracks in his icy armor to touch the very emotional heart of him...

Heburied the knowledge deep---where other, older, pains had been buried beneath a veneer of cold and untouchable indifference.

He disdained emotion. It was for the weak, and he was not weak. He was inu.

Taiyoukai.

Disturbing emotion withdrawn, he gazed at his betrayer coolly. Whatever there was between them must be ignored for the sake of the child the girl carried. Any other paltry concerns or unresolved issues between them paled in consideration to a child of his blood.

"Miko." He said, commanding her attention.

He expected her tears, he could sense them unshed and sparkling her deep brown eyes. he did not expect her glare---or her bitter words.

"You have yet to answer my question." She bit out, nerves raw and on the breaking point.

A single silver brow rose in mild inquiry, and the anger seethed through her, making her fist her hands at her side as she repeated it between clenched teeth, unaware of the fiery flash of her eyes or the raw beauty she presented thus angered.

"Where have you been?"

"It is no concern of yours." He replied coolly.

"The hell it isn't." She snapped, the slim rein she held on her anger broken by his rank unconcern with it. The fury exploded, warming her, and she forgot her fear and sadness. With snapping dry eyes, she turned on him all the pent up rage and loss of the last five months. She was shaking with the raw emotion of it, and he could feel the flaring pulse of the energy aura that surrounded her flare and heat about her as she found a focus for her fury.

"You have GOT to be joking! You MUST be joking---because you CAN'T be serious! Not my concern? You conceited, arrogant DOG! You kidnaped me---took me from my friends---held me captive with no reason WHY!---bite my NECK---which STILL hasn't healed!---you could have given me RABIES---"

He stiffened, outraged at her insults. But he was no mere ningen to lose control, so he remained still, his expression cold and remote, but the gold in his eyes darkened the smallest bit in obvious warning.

Kagome was beyond caring, her indignation and anger fueling the fire of her justifiable wrath. "Rabies! You ARE rabid! And CRAZY! You get me drunk and make me...make me..." She faltered over the words, her flushed cheeks glowing brighter in a blush. She dropped her eyes from the golden glow of his and took an unconscious step backwards before grabbing up the thread of her anger once more.

"You---we---I---and then you...you..." Her voice hitched in raw pain. "You HURT me, and called me a whore---INUYASHA'S whore---when it was YOU who I...I...and then you LEFT. You send that ugly little toad---that nasty, smelly, stinking little bug-eyed TOAD to call me names and DISMISS me like I was---like what we shared wasn't something precious, but like it was DIRTY. 'Poor mighty Taiyoukai, dirtied himself with a filthy human girl'...YOU JERK! I was a VIRGIN! How could you take something like THAT from me and then SPIT on it?"

SesshouMaru's composure cracked the tiniest bit, but Kagome did not see the flicker of anger and regret that crossed the yellow gold of his eyes. To her, he remained a cold statue that continued to simply stare at her, no emotion crossing his angelically cruel, perfect face.

"Why should I expect anything less?" She wilted suddenly, the flash of her anger dissolving. Her thin shoulders dropped, and her head bowed as the tears ran down her face, unheeded. She trembled with the anger of betrayal, but his lack of reaction made it seem pointless to continue screaming at him. The black tangles of her hair curled over her pale cheeks, and she hid her clenched fists in the green fabric of her fuku.

SesshouMaru stood frozen for a moment, and then with the next, was directly in front of her, the claws of his left hand curling over her shoulder while the fingers of the right, claw tips flashing white in the swirling energies that now surrounded them in tumultuous grey storms of disturbance, went to touch across the wet cheek and nudge her chin up so that he could stare into her eyes.

Kagome refused to raise her head, and his fingers became hard and unrelenting, forcing the pale oval of her face to lift so that he could stare down at her. His tail once again curved across the arch of her back, caressing her spine in a soft but firm support. Her eyes widened, and her breath caught in her throat. She shivered at the golden intensity that was burning into her eyes.

...SesshouMaru... ...

His name was a whispered caress from her mind, and he could feel the sudden arousal that flooded her. He was pleased by it, but he damped down his own desires to brush the tears off of her wet cheek almost tenderly. "I regret my behavior."

It was the only apology he would ever utter to her. She was, after all, still only a ningen. But he did regret having hurt her, how deeply, he had not realized. But she had hurt him as well, and there was too much and too many between them for there to be anything other than respect. And he had always respected her, even if she was a mere onna.

And for the sake of the child she carried, be it hanyou or not, it was still of his blood, and he would do his duty and see to her care and comfort. He recognised, now, that even if the child was only half-bred, it was still his---

There was a spark in her eyes. "You cannot understand---"

The golden eyes held hers, and he said firmly. "I do understand."

Her eyes widened and she breathed in surprised pain, "You know..."

He nodded once, his eyes unreadable, but the claws curled over the curve of her cheek in a firm caress.

"How long?" Confusion and fear, and strangely, hurt, flickered across the sparkling brown eyes. The whisper was hoarse to his delicate hearing.

"That does not matter." He said, voice firm.

She stilled in his close, supporting embrace, but he heeded it not. He told her what he intended, now that he knew the frail onna carried his pup. "You will come to the Western Lands, where I can protect you. I will personally guarentee your care and comfort in the castle that is my home. You will want for nothing, and I promise that your child, be it son or daughter, will hold a place equal to its rank and station in life as a child of my blood, and that you will be taken care of for the remainder of your days, however long they are. There is that which comes which you will not understand, my armies move against the dark hanyou, and I will not have you endangered by the coming battle. I insist you ready yourself, for the journey will be hard ardrous this late in the season, but I will be sending an escort to retrieve you from the village of the Goshinboku to take you to my home in comfort and safety."

Her mouth had fallen open in shock at his announcement, and he waited to hear her capitulation. Her small hands firmed once more on his chest, and his golden eyes narrowed as he sensed the incredulity and annoyance---surely not, it could not be, the girl should be grateful that he would take her in and offer her his protection and his home, rather than sitting in squalor in a hovel at the edge of nowhere, but she was actually annoyed at his high-handed manner, and his eyes streaked faintly red when she blurted out,

"You can't be serious."

She was not amusing.

A growl escaped him, and her eyes widened, a flush staining her pale cheeks.

"You ARE serious."

Of course he was serious. She was being unexpectedly difficult. He should have foreseen it, she had always been a strange woman, defiant and difficult, even in circumstances that should have had her backing away in fear. He did not have InuYasha's love of ningen or patience with the frail creatures, he would not put up with her unorthodox behavior. She should be falling down on her knees in gratitude, instead she was staring at him as if he had two heads.

He slid his arms from around her and stepped back, the better able to glare down at her and emphasize his point of her lower status. She might be the mother of his forthcoming child, and a powerful miko, but she was still only an onna, and a foolish and young one at that. He knew what was best for her, and she would obey him. He was Taiyoukai.

He gazed at her coldly, his voice icy and commanding. "You will be ready in a week's time. I will not tolerate disobedience, even in the mother of my child." His eyes glowed faintly with blood, to better emphasize his dominance over her.

She gave him an incredulous look. "You're deranged."

He bit back a growl. "Miko, you try my patience. I assure you, that is not a good start."

She actually tossed her head, the black hair spilling in a feathery fall over her other shoulder. "If you think I'm going to leave my friends---"

He had been brought up to date on the status of her "friends". She actually flinched when he replied coldly, "Your friends have scattered. My brother and the taijiya have disappeared, with no word of their whereabouts or welfare. You cannot believe that a young fox kit, a perverted monk, and an old miko of limited ability could protect you if Naraku decides suddenly that my pup would better be dead than born. It is surprising that he has not taken an interest in the matter before, but I assure you, that his disinterest will not remain buried for much longer."

She flinched at the dark hanyou's name, and her hands went instinctively to curve over the flat plain of her belly. Here is the overworld, she wore only the semblance of how she saw herself, and not how she was in the physical world. He wondered, suddenly, how far along she was or how her slim curves had altered with the rigors of child-bearing. An inu-youkai (female) would whelp her pups in three months, but a ningen female took thrice that long to birth her babe. As an onna, she would bear for nine moons, or forty weeks. He could allow her a leisure journey to his castle, but for not much longer would she be able to travel, humans being such a frail species...

Her chin thrust out stubbornly, and her eyes flashed at the disdain that had dripped from his words. Her pale cheeks were flushed with high color, and the depths of her brown eyes glittered with a feverish light. A tendril of curling midnight shifted on the curve of her neck where it met her shoulder, and the crescent mark glittered with a smouldering fuchsia light.

Her words were bit out sharply. "I don't care what you 'demand'. I am staying with my friends, where I know I am wanted. I refuse---" She shook with the fury that enwrapped her, "---REFUSE to be carted off willy-nilly to the Western Lands just so your stupid honor can be soothed that you have done your DUTY." She spat that word out with a loathing he could feel snapping at him like the poison whip he struck at his enemies.

"You are foolish, miko." He growled.

"And you're a jerk." Kagome's eyes glittered with a fevered light as she snapped back.

He was at her in a flash, his claws curling over her thin shoulders to grip them fiercely and shake her---gently, for she was frail, this stubborn wench---to make her see sense, to make her submit. The inu was growling in the back of his mind, demanding her obeisance. He was Alpha!

Kagome's eyes flashed as the blood seeped into his. He bared his fangs, the growl heating him. 'Damn her, she will obey me!'

"No." Her lips were white, and her fevered eyes wild. Her defiance flared at him, making him tighten his claws just as she crumpled in a dead faint.

Her weight dragged at him, but he braced her body up. 'What in all the hells?' He was taken aback, and swept her small form up into his arms. His tail curled over and around her back, and with a flicker of casual thought, firmed the grey-clouded matter beneath them so that he might sit down with her cradled in his arms. Her mind was opened to him, but was a whirling chaos of flaring emotions that he could not sort through right now. He closed the barrier between that chaos and focused his concentration on finding what, exactly, had happened.

The grey-clouded world that surrounded them turned dark and ominous, swirling storm-heads that reflected the blazing chaos of the miko's mind, and his own surprise and consternation. The inu howled eerily inside of him, and he pushed it back, so that he could concentrate more fully.

Pulling in his aura, he formed it into a soft light to surround them both, using it as a shield to keep the stormy ambience of the overworld from disturbing him. There were flashes and flares of deep rose and fuchsia lightening across the roiling grey clouds, making a wild and fragmented pattern. The miko's dissolved conscience was reaching out to the netherworld around them, and sending it into a turmoil and chaos that reflected her own. As the greenly-yellow light extended around them, the disturbing energies were cut off and silenced, although they still raged beyond the fragile glow of his shielding barrier.

She slumped in his arms, her fevered cheek coming to rest against his armored breast-plate. It would be uncomfortable for her, and he mentally dissolved it with a flicker of thought, so that she nestled against the white fabric of his haori. He could feel the heat that rose from her, or what he sensed as heat. Supporting her head and shoulders in his right arm, he untangled his left from under her legs and pushed the tangled weave of her black hair from her forehead. Her breath was light and fast, as was the heartbeat that called to him. He had forgotten how much her nearness could affect him, and he ruthlessly stamped down the sudden arousal that had the inu growling again.

Her forehead was almost searing to the touch, a magnified reaction of the fever that must be claiming her sleeping body in the physical world. He could feel her consciousness slipping away, and the image of her in this grey world of dreams and thoughts flickered and weakened, slowly paling.

'NO.' He snarled and tightened his hold on her. He pictured her mind as her body in this reality, holding tightly to it and refusing to let go. There was something there that was not right. He could feel the sluggish surging of her angry aura as if it were the slow-moving blood that pumped through her body and into her limbs, giving her life. He must seek the heart of it, must see why the fever gripped her, and the chaos surrounded her spirit in a tight embrace.

He could not, right now, consider if it was the work of a malignant mind, or if it came from the foul manipulations of the Jewel-bearing hanyou Naraku, that were twisting the girl's aura into a slow poison that was consuming her mind and was forcing her frail body into the fevered insomnia and constant weariness that he now recognized within her. All of his concentration was needed in locating the cause of the disturbing power of her aura and dissolving it before it would ultimately lead to her death, her fragile body unable to stand the driving energies that would consume it.

He shifted her body in his arms, so that her cheek now rested against the sleeve of his haori, exposing her neck and the sign of his claiming. His golden eyes arrowed on the flaring pulse of the crescent mark on her neck. It pulsed and burned with a fierce light, a swollen fuchsia streaked with magenta and dull rose. Her pure aura, the power of a miko, should have made it pulse with the pale pink and searing white of that pure power. Instead, it seemed to glitter and pulsate with a burning energy, like a malevolent Shikon shard.

Without pause, he bared his fangs and plunged them into the swollen ends of his crescent mark. He shuddered at the sudden, blinding chaos that swamped over him. His vision filled with a reddened haze, as his youkai blood surged to fight against the power that threatened to overwhelm and drown him. Grasping his aura with blind claws, he pulled it around him like a shielding cloak. The glow of his own power as a youkai pulsed to life, brightening and sending back the whirling chaos of pure miko energy that surrounded him.

He was thunderstruck with the very presence of such raw power...such all-consuming, pulsating, blinding POWER. It was a live thing, ever growing and filling, it did not lay still, awaiting a call for use, but simmered and swelled if not used and drained. The girl had kept her miko energy tightly contained, refusing to acknowledge or use it, and it had grown and grown until it threatened to overflow and kill her with the instability of it. Like an over-filled vessel, it would, eventually, split its sides and spill out.

Why had the miko not recognized the danger? Why had she not drained the seething power that had continued to expand within her? If she were unable to release it herself safely, then why had she not sought out one who could? One who could deplete the growing power out of her without harming her or the child she bore---

He pushed the thoughts away, realizing that there was one very important reason that snapped all the others into the background. The ningen girl was pregnant with his pup, a youkai child. The purification powers of a miko would be death to the unprotected and defenseless babe---no, BABES---in her womb.

He would be a fool to try and drain that immense power himself. He was youkai, she was miko. There was no way that their auras, seperated by a gulf of purpose of no small magnitude, could combine and---

He stilled, cursing his distracted thoughts. He could feel his own aura growing and filling, and he froze at the vulnerability he had left himself in. But what was this? He expected the pain of refusal, as the miko energies rejected his youkai blood and tried to purify it out of him. He was too strong to be purified, he was a Taiyoukai and of an ancient blood that could easily shield his demonic aura from attacks of that nature. But the fierce green light that he had shielded and surrounded both of them with was slowly expanding and softening, feeding on the surging power that extended in glowering waves all around them.

Closing his reddened eyes, he traced the crescent mark on her neck with the edge of his tongue, before biting his fangs deeper into the ends. He could feel the surge of her power, and like a dream within a dream, he saw both the fuchsia-tinted haze of Kagome's mind and the overworld dream-image that contained him, holding her in his arms and surrounded by his barrier. The inu within him roared, and he opened himself fully to the energy that had threatened to drown him and overwhelm the frail miko he held so tightly to.

He quickly filled himself with the raw power that was hers, and still there was more than he could need or use. As cold and calmly as a surgeon, he deftly diverted the flow of energy into the surrounding world, seeking out the essence of the earth to feed off the excess that neither he nor the girl Kagome could contain. He became merely a gate for that power to flood from the little miko and out into the earth from whence it came, his aura burning with the awesome power that was tingling across and over him. But even as it passed through him and beyond, he felt it comforting and burgeoning him, and he chilled at the PURITY that surrounded and flooded him in an endless torrent that seemed to trap him forever in its embrace.

Fear and doubt disappeared, and for a moment his inner self was bared so that he could stare at the inner demons that plagued him and not shrink from them as he had in the past. That pure energy seemed to swamp out all of the dark secrets of his soul and he felt vulnerable, but not disturbed or apprehensive as he would normally. The comfort and perfect purity of that breathtaking aura, of the joy-filled soul that slowly emerged as the power receded bit by bit and dissolved from around it made his blood surge within him in recognition, and for one brief instant that seemed to last forever and was gone in a mere blink of awareness, there was acceptance and joy and comfort and harmony that was so intense and loving and open in union between his soul and hers that he could not acknowledge it with the more limited understanding of his mind, and must later doubt that it had even taken place.

For one, brief, shining moment, they were One.

And then they were not, and his fangs gently withdrew from the half-moon mark on her neck. The crescent flared with a blinding white light of purity and then dissolved into a slow and steady pulse of pale rose. He licked the pierced ends, though there would be no physical wounds in the real world from this mental sojourn in the overworld of dreams and visions, and allowed his healing saliva to seal the small incisions. The girl stirred in his arms, and although he should feel drained and tired, he felt burgeoned with a new energy and strength.

::Mine...:: The inu, which was now closer than ever to his soul, whispered a soft growl over the unconscious girl, who now lay sleeping peacefully, the fevers of her body broken.

...SesshouMaru... ... Her mind whispered to him, and he was pleased that she now dreamed of him.

She was not what he had ever expected to find, and he realized now that he could never let her go. But he also realized, with a faint snarl at his own bungling of the affair, that he could not smother that precious spirit, that fire that filled her and had---he could now admit---attracted him from the first time he had seen her, outfitted in strange clothes, her legs shamelessly bared to mid-thigh and her dark-blue shirt encircled by stars, so that he had, in a part of his mind he had refused to acknowledge at the time, thought she was a tennyo or faerie-witch sent from the night to tempt and taunt him, proud fool that he was.

"Kagome." He curled his claws along her cheek and allowed his lips to touch hers in a mere breath of a kiss. His eyes were a molten gold that glowed with an inner conviction of spirit and recognition that she, this preposterous miko from the future, was his mate, and not just his pawn.

She stirred restlessly, and sunk deeper into slumber, a healing, restful sleep that would mend the rigors of her body. He could not follow her into the absorbing darkness as she went deeper than dreams followed, and her form was dissolving into a pale blur of awareness as she dropped from their linked minds and he allowed her departure.

He would allow her to stay where she was, she felt the safest there among the known and normal, her friends around her and the familiar easing her worries. He had his own pressing issues to resolve. His allies were gathering and his armies would soon march, to stamp out the dark hanyou who had dared touch one of his. It would take him from her side, and he needed all of the ruthless control and icy determination that the forthcoming battle of revenge would exact of him.

And then he would return for her. He would not allow her to leave his side again. She would stay in her village, with her friends. He would not leave her defenseless, though. He would send chosen youkai to guard her---she would be too tempting a target for Naraku if the dark hanyou should find out just how much he, the Taiyoukai of the Western Lands, now cared for the little miko Kagome.

He let her spirit go, to wander into healing slumber, and he felt his own awareness fading from the grey nothingness of the overworld as he let his fierce concentration falter. Suddenly, he became aware once more of the icy kiss of the wind on his body, and his limbs felt stiff and leaden from having stood frozen in the upper parapets of the Western Tower. He blinked the aching dryness from his golden eyes and looked up into the blanketing clouds. Small, fat flakes fell lazily from the hovering blanket, and he felt their chilling touch on his skin.

Flexing the claws of his one good hand, for a moment he felt as if he flexed the claws of the other, a mocking phantom of feeling from the one that had been cut from him with the Tetsusaiga. The ghostly feel of an limb and hand that were not there reminded him sharply of the snarling rage he had felt that his weaker, half-bastard brother could take THIS from him as well.

His thirst for vengeance against the insult InuYasha had given him had fueled the cold calculation with which he had set about in avenging the slight to his honor and the bitterness of defeat at his half-brother's claws. He had not calculated on how the girl Kagome would affect him, would come to him as the only one who could ever fill the cold void in his heart. He had tried to deny it, tried to ignore and dismiss it. He even, if he was harshly honest, ran from it.

Vengeance had not dealt the satisfaction he had expected. Instead, it left him with a scar in his heart and a dread-filled fear that his ruthless use of the girl as a mere tool for his smarting pride might have turned her away from him forever. He knew, now, how much she was to him, but she could not know to what depths she had affected him. She might never forgive him for the way he had manipulated and used her, and he did not know if he could bear the dull ache of emptiness, of endlessly dusty and lonely years that would stretch before him if he could not summon from her what his brother InuYasha had had so easily: her heart.

The knowledge that he might have torn away any chance of joy and fulfillment filled him with a cold bitterness that bit icier than the snow-laiden wind that howled around him. He knew, now, what he had paid for his revenge.

He loved her, and knew not if she could ever love him.

This, then, was the price of vengeance.

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A/N: No, I didn't fall off the face of the planet, though I might as well have. Between computer problems and work stress and typing gabbledy-gook that made no sense whatsoever, it has taken me weeks to finally write, edit and post these chapters. The next ones are coming together right now, and there should be a lemon in the near future. XD Hope you liked the two I just posted, and I need to give special thanks to quite a few people and answer some questions posed by email. AOL deleted a whole bunch of my unanswered mail when my monitor was down, so if I forgot you on the mailing list or did not answer your question, please email me again at Inufanasha(atsign)aol(dot)com. If you hate long author notes, completely ignore this. If you like 'em, I promise a funny bit at the very end from one of my reviewers.

Thanks go to George Strait, who helped me write this chapter with his song "Nobody in His Right Mind" (First verse included, love the words!)

I burn with desire,

Each time my heart

Fans the fire

Through that old flame

That burns inside of me.

She cried when I left her,

Now I try to forget her.

Oh how foolish I was

To ever want to leave...

Further thanks go to Fairia13 and Vyncent, who kept encouraging, suggesting, and inspiring me when I was harassed by an uncooperative Sessy. Fairia13 has written an awesome Sess/Rin fic called "Stronger", which can be found on (Her OC Raidon, Lord of the Southern Lands, has displaced my darling Sessy in sexy hotness. 'Pant, Pant' Want more of my darling lion, Fair-chan!) Vyncent has also written a great story, of Sess/Kag that has an awesomely unique way of dealing with lemony goodness, it's called "The Beast Awakens" and can be found on A Single Spark. Other inspirations include Kilala81's "Secrets of the Shinju", AmyFushigiyugi's "Defy Not the Heart", Richonyx's "Tasting Amber", Terri Botta's "The Lucky Ones", and Numisma's "Movie House Hanyou". Further inspiration is drawn from some sexy fan-art, my fav can be found on A Single Spark, done by Sake no Miko. Hot Kag/Sess, not hentai, but inspired this story from the beginning.

I want to thank all of the reviewers who have kept pace with Vengeance, and sent me requests and death threats to update. (Ducking under desk.) A few people had some questions, and I'll try to answer them here. Cassie, Kagome is now five months pregnant. Artemis, Sess will not let me define him as good or bad. I'm email you a better answer to your question tomorrow, I want to post this up tonight. Another reviewer (I apologize, your email and name were deleted by AOL before my monitor was back up) asked me where I had gotten the charms/customs in Chapter 49 (Dreams) about Kag's and Koharu's pregnancies. I did some research into traditional customs on pregnancy and came across stories of beliefs passed down by Japanese parents to their Hawaiian-born children. Adopting many of these to Vengeance, the others (like gaining weight to be gifted with twins) came from my own twisted psyche, though in many ancient cultures, fertility goddesses were depicted rather heftily. Hope that answers your questions, and if you have any others, please let me know.

I have a request for Tom & Patricia, who I continue to thank for their reviews, please send me the title and author name of you fic on I lost the email where I had earmarked it for future reading. I'm really wanting to check it out, so please let me know where I can find your story.

Now for a bit of nonsense, sent to me by Demon Wicca, who made me howl over this. Thanks, Wicca, and hope to hear from you soon!

Inuyasha walks up to the group. Everyone raises their heads. Kikiyo appears out of nowhere, and walks to where Kagome's at. the girls lock gazes and then turn to Inuyasha.  
  
Inuyasha gulps...  
"I've decided...I've got some good news" he says...each girl have a glint of hope in their eyes, and stand up...  
  
"You chose me?" they said at the same time...  
  
Inuyasha simply shakes his head. "No, but I just saved a whole bunch of money on my sword insurance by switching to GEICO.."


	55. Chapter FiftyFour: Hesitant

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, etc. Rumiko Taskahashi does. This story is for entertainment purposes only.

A/N: Loved the reviews! Thank you very much. I promise not to be so tardy in the future with updates. Some late thanks go to KawaiiInuYoukai, who wondered if Kikyo had cursed Inuyasha with loneliness and Fairia13 for wondering about Kagome's growing powers, and to Vyncent, who answered that question for me. Thanks to all who have spurred on ideas for Vengeance, this story would not be have as good without them! On a side note: My talented Vyncent has written another story, posted on A Single Spark, and called "Unworthy One". Gave me the shivers and I wiped the tears away with a smile. Love waffy darkness all snuggled together. Great fic, Vyncent, can't wait for more!

WARNING: SOME LANGUAGE. NO ONE UNDER 17 PLEASE!

Chapter Fifty-Four (Hesitant)

When she was unable to find Kirara in any of her usual spots, Sango grew concerned for her neko companion. Biting her lip, she scanned the dawn-lit landscape, seeking inspiration from the half-shadowed buildings that stood empty and deserted in the encircling timbered fence that InuYasha had repaired while she recovered her strength. Her thoughts were distracted, and part of her was proud of the work they had started repairing some of the wreckage done to the devastated village. There was still a lot more to do, but most of the more obvious damage had been fixed. InuYasha had worked hard, and when she had once asked him about his zealous labors, the hanyou had just shrugged and grumbled that he couldn't stand looking at the mess.

A soft smile touched her lips. The hanyou always got so defensive and growlly when he was confronted with his own natural compulsion to help those in need.

A trilling call outside the village pulled her attention away from InuYasha, and she searched for the sound of the bird calling out to the awakening world around it. InuYasha was suddenly there, beside her, his white ears twitching. He, too, was looking toward the village gates. The bird sang again, and then fell silent.

Sango suddenly knew where Kirara was.

'Midoriko's cave.'

The neko went there, sometimes, and seemed to find comfort in the ghostly caverns of Midoriko's tomb. Sango could understand: she had sought out Midoriko's cave herself when troubled in the past. Not often; although she could find a quiet peace there, there was also a disturbing presence...perhaps the ghostly forms of the embattling demons, or just her own unease around the statuary, frozen in death as they had been in the last moments of life. Sango did not really understand her mixed feelings regarding the old miko-warrior's inner sanctum. Her father had always been proud of their distant ancestor, the lady-warrior who had used the last of her strength to pull her soul, and the demons, into the Otherworld, locked forever in combat, her heart the Jewel of Four Souls...

Perhaps it was the heroic sacrifice of Midoriko's life, the eternal struggle she waged, even now, in the heart of the Jewel, that pulled at Sango. There was no rest for the self-sacrificing miko of old...and the Jewel that had been created from the last thrust of her sacred powers was now a pawn and a tool to help the darker side that the ancient miko had always fought...

'Would she never find peace?'

InuYasha sent her a sharp look, seeing how troubled her brown eyes were. "Hey." He growled, mistaking her thoughts. "Kirara can take care of herself."

Sango allowed a soft smile to touch her lips. "I know." With that enigmatic reply, she left the hanyou standing with his arms crossed over his chest as she made her way through the village gates and down the winding path to the limestone cavern of Midoriko's tomb.

There was a scramble of slipping pebbles and an impatient grunt behind her, and Sango felt heartened as InuYasha reached her side. She looked up at him, feeling uneasy and strange after peering at the darkened face of the tomb's entrance, and bit back a smile. InuYasha's amber eyes were wary, and his claws were tightening on the hilt of his Tetsusaiga. Was he remembering Midoriko's version of "sit"? The hanyou had arrogantly proclaimed his intentions of using the completed Jewel to become a full demon, and the spirit in the cave had expelled him like a slingshot straight out of the cavern and tumbling into the trees that lined the valley below.

InuYasha crossed his arms, impatient. "Where the hell is that stupid cat, anyway?"

"Mew."

Startled, both of them turned, to see Kirara sitting on the stony path behind them. 'How...?'

Kirara blinked, and then opened her kitteny mouth in a wide yawn, as if bored with them. Her tails flicked back and forth, and she made a low, purring sound.

"Where the hell did you come from?" InuYasha growled.

Kirara tilted her head, her purr louder.

"Keep your damn secrets, I don't care." InuYasha groused.

Sango just smiled, opening her arms. With a graceful leap that should have been impossible for her small size, the neko was cuddled in the taijiya's arms, her purr rumbling against her chest as the kitten smoothed her furry cheek against Sango's neck. Sango kissed the top of Kirara's starred forehead, one hand rubbing gentle circles over the neko's perked ears. Kirara purred louder, the vibration making Sango laugh.

InuYasha scowled, his look jealous.

He couldn't stand one more damn minute of it.

"WELL?"

Sango looked up, her eyes honeyed brown and warm. She shrugged, and Kirara's red eyes glowed at him.

54545454545454

InuYasha was testy and impatient this morning, and Sango had to bite back a few retorts when his grumbling got under her skin. Something was bothering him, and normally she would have teased him out of it. But he seemed distracted and irritable, far more so than usual, and she was still a little shy around him after yesterday.

They were both preparing to leave, the unspoken agreement between them that they had spent enough time away from Kaede's village. After yesterday's energetic sparring match, it was more than clear that Sango had regained her strength. There was no longer any real reason for them to linger in the deserted village, and yet...

A part of her was saddened as she went through the village, making certain that the doors and windows were secured against the coming winter. This high in the hills, the air was already chilly and spoke of an early frost in its breath. She shivered, but not with cold. Once this village had teemed with life, and she had thought---after Naraku's devastating attack---that that life was forever annihilated. She had not cared, then, that the broken huts had stood opened to the ravages of the weather. Her sorrow had still been too poignant and overwhelming for her to even consider what might be salvaged of her home. But InuYasha had been busy, she hadn't realized until now just how much work he had done.

There was still a lot of work to do, enough work to fill a dozen hands for years to come. And yet, each of the huts had been repaired enough to keep out the weather, and merely looked dilapidated, not destroyed. What could not be salvaged had been torn down and cut into firewood. They had enough firewood to keep the village fires going for at least two years from the rubbled remains, but the burnt skeletons of empty houses no longer crept across the landscape, a stark reminder of the terrible tragedy that had happened.

Her heart was at peace now, the ghosts no longer haunted her. She would seek revenge for her family and friends, she would kill Naraku or die trying. Family honor demanded no less. But she would no longer live in the past. She was freed.

Thanks to InuYasha.

She carefully checked the sealing mechanism on the door to the smithy, where demon bones and hide had been kept and weapons and armor made from them. She knew all of the arts of her village's craft; her father's training had been thorough. But the store-house stood empty: the haunted remains stolen by Sazuna and Sarena months before having been demolished in the Wind Scar of InuYasha's rescue. If she was ever to revive the village again, and teach the art of demon slaying, she would have to muster new weapons. And she knew not where she might find people eager to settle in such a remote location, with such a burden and such a dark, ominous past...

It was a lost dream, a stupid dream, really.

Sango closed her eyes and leaned wearily against the stout door to the store-room.

"Mew?"

She smiled softly at the neko's impatient inquiry.

Opening her eyes, she eased the tense strain from her shoulders. "I'm done, Kirara."

"Mewr." Kirara's tails flicked back and forth.

"Something the matter?" Sango asked, kneeling down, concern threading her voice. She tensed again, wary.

Kirara's eyes glowed, and her nose pointed toward the distant rise. Sango stood up, her fingers cupping the slowly setting sun's glare from the shadow that stood on the hill that overlooked the village and was high enough to see beyond the tall wooden palisades of the village to the scattering forest that swept the surrounding hills.

Long silver hair glittered and whitened in the sun's descent, the red Fire Rat robes a fiercer shade than the sun would become as it descended lower to the earth. The wind rose, tugging at the loose locks around Sango's ears and stirring the ends of InuYasha's mane.

'He's brooding.'

She had the fierce desire to go and shake him out of it, snap a challenge at him that would make his eyes glow that almost golden amber and make his nostrils widen as if he could take in the smell of battle. He was always so eager to win; she loved that about him. There was so much she loved about him, she almost ached with it. For so long, she had kept her feelings carefully hidden. InuYasha was beyond her: for one, he was tied to not one, but two women, one of whom was the sister of her heart, if not her blood. For another, he was hanyou, though that had not bothered her as much as it might have. It bothered him, though, and she had often wondered if he would ever desire children, believing that they would grow up hated and feared by both men and youkai. She had been raised among slayers, which might have put an insurmountable barrier between them. But her father had not only taught her the art of war, he had also taught her the art of parlay. To this day, she remembered the serpent healer who they had been contracted to slay, and who had ended up being the solution to the healer-less village who had feared it. Her father had often stressed that it was not only their duty to rescue humans, but sometimes, to rescue demons.

Though even he had never mentioned hanyou. They were a despised half-caste not worthy of their birth. Sango had never really thought about it---she had been too eager to slay any demon who might come near her blade or boomerang, though her father would laugh at her exuberance and call it youth, and deliberately take her with him on "parlay", so that she could see for herself that every situation had two sides, like the steeled katana she was so ready to use.

She missed her father, suddenly, acutely, and wondered what he might have thought about InuYasha. He had always been one to like a brash tongue, as long as the bravado had the manhood to back it up...

She sighed, wishing he was here to ask advice of. Though how she could approach him with what was heavy on her heart, she knew not.

Kirara mewed again, impatient with them both. Her tails were lashing, and her eyes glowed brighter.

Sango frowned, speaking to her companion as if she were human. "I can't."

Kirara wrinkled her nose at her.

Sango shook her head. "It's not that simple."

Kirara made a derisive noise.

Sango just shook her head, mute. Whatever the neko youkai thought, InuYasha was not free to love her. He might even think of her as just a comforting friend. The kiss they had shared, the night wrapped in each other's arms, might mean nothing to him once he saw Kagome again. He had loved the young miko deeply, as much as he had loved Kikyo. There was no way Sango could compete with either of them. He had been away from the miko for a long time. He might seem distant, but when he brooded, he brooded about Kagome.

Kirara scowled, as much as a cute kitten could, and lashed her tails again. Sango closed her eyes, refusing to show her sadness over the thought of InuYasha's troubled heart. There was no way that the hanyou could know how deep her feelings ran. She was stupid if she didn't face the reality that he might never be able to return her love. She had accepted that before, so why was it so hard now?

With a roaring sweep of flames, Kirara transformed into her larger form, her fangs elongating and her eyes glowing. The transformation brought Sango out of her thoughts, and she nodded silently. Retrieving her Hiraikotsu and the small bundle she had packed from her hut, she walked beside the larger neko and up to the hill where InuYasha stood staring at the sun.

"InuYasha?" Sango queried, slightly hesitant.

The hanyou's eyes were a deepening gold, and he flashed her a fathomless look. "Finally."

Sango stiffened at his abrupt word. 'Finally?!'

"Took you long enough." InuYasha tossed at her, arms crossed and look impatient.

Sango wanted to smack him. She held back the urge with some fierce willpower, and turned to Kirara instead. Tying the small bundle to her side, above her katana, so that it would dangle over her leg and Kirara's side in flight, she turned Hiraikotsu so that she might tie it out of the way along her back. Suddenly, InuYasha was there, pulling at the heavy boomerang.

"That damn thing is always in the way." InuYasha growled, grabbing Hiraikotsu from her hands as she sought to secure it.

"What are you...?" Sango blinked at him, but he ignored her question, tying the mighty weapon to his own back.

An idea startled her. "InuYasha, I've regained my strength. I can carry Hiraikotsu's weight. You don't have to worry---"

InuYasha snorted. "I know you can carry the stupid thing. Whatever. Are we going to stand here arguing or are you going to climb on that damn cat's back so we can get the hell outta here?"

Strangely hurt by his cutting words, Sango shut her mouth, her lips firming into a thin white line, and silently mounted Kirara, who purred soothingly at her. Scratching the deep fur between Kirara's ears, Sango was comforted as the mighty purr of the neko rumbled under her parted thighs.

InuYasha scowled at them both and then scrambled up behind her. Kirara warned them before taking off, and Sango dug her fingers in the fur of Kirara's ruff, where it wouldn't hurt the neko youkai. They were up and away, and InuYasha sat braced behind her as they gained altitude. Kirara settled into her distance-eating flight, the fiery flames sparking off of her black paws and Sango relaxed into the familiar motion.

She gasped and tensed again as claws circled her waist in a strong grip and InuYasha scooted himself forward so that her backside was plastered to his front, her bottom nestled between the hard iron muscles of his thighs.

"InuYasha?"

"I'm scared of heights." His amber eyes glowed over her shoulder, the abrasive comment whispering warmth in her ear. Sango's brown eyes widened in shock, he couldn't think she believed such a lame excuse, could he?

She tried to turn her head to tell him just that, the angry retort on her lips, but he growled as the long tip of her ponytail snapped him smartly on the side of his shoulder, raised by the wind of their passage. "Damn it, Sango! Keep still or I'm going to snatch you bald!"

Silent outrage stiffened her spine, and she tried to stay a rigid as a board, uncomfortable with their proximity, but he wouldn't let her. His arms were wrapped over her stomach, just above her hips, and every time she tried to lean forward over Kirara's neck, he plastered himself to her back. A brilliant flush stained her cheeks as he lightly nestled her rear into his---she could feel every movement as he adjusted and corrected to Kirara's motions, and she wanted to die of embarrassment. Instead, her mouth thinned on her anger, and she refused to let him know how mortified she was by his manhandling.

He nosed her hair out of way, so that it streamed behind them both on the right side and rested his chin on her curving shoulder, and she wanted to scream at the warm breath that curled in and out around her ear. He was going to drive her insane. He was even worse than Miroku! What was he thinking? It was undignified, it was inappropriate, it was...intimate.

Warmth coiled low in her belly, and Sango refused to admit that it was due to InuYasha's tight embrace and not anger that was making her skin tingle and her breath come short. How dare he hold her like this, as if he cared? As if he---

She bowed her head, the damn tears must be from the sharp sting of the wind in her face, nothing else.

'Damn it, anyway.'

She suddenly wanted to laugh. Now she was using InuYasha's own curses! He was going to drive her completely insane! She was already unsettled by his possessive, firm hold on her, and she wanted to know if...

Shaking her head, she refused to think about it anymore. Only time would tell, and she could be reading so much more into it than existed. Still...it was nice to be held so close to him, and she relaxed, melting against his harder form behind her. InuYasha lightly squeezed his arms around her thin waist, and enveloped her slighter frame in his as they flew through the fiery skies of the setting sun.

5454545454545454

He could sniff out the village long before they spotted it in the shadows of the cloud-ridden night. Small sounds were lost in the roaring wind of their passage, but his ears pricked forward out of habit.

Kirara rumbled beneath him, and he straightened up, away from Sango, who stirred drowsily. She had relaxed, finally, against him, and even fallen asleep, held tight in his arms. He had spent the time taking in her scent, eyes watching over her shoulder the unfolding landscape beneath them, not entirely capable of trusting Kirara to carry them safely. He was always on the lookout for danger, his instincts honed by years of having to depend on only himself.

It had been strange, learning how to trust (but not fully) the people around him...that Miroku and Sango and even little Shippo had their own strengths that he could depend upon.

And Kagome...

His ears drooped, not wanting to dwell on that thought. He shifted minutely, uncertain how Sango might react if she knew the direction of his thoughts. Withdrawal was easy, and familiar, and he scooted back away from his snug hold on her, making Kirara hiss at the change in weight.

Sango awoke suddenly, her senses alert. Her head turned sharply, scanning the sky and ground below for any danger, and he could feel the muscles tensing under his claws. Certain that she was fully awake, he loosened his grip from around her waist, and folded his arms, using his thighs to keep him upright and steady on the neko's back.

Sango's fingers tightened into Kirara's fur, and she cast him a confused glance, the shadows of the night masking the color of her eyes to him. His closed expression made her jerk slightly, and he felt like an ass, which made him even more defensive.

"We're almost there." He said abruptly, hoping it would explain his sudden withdrawal.

Sango's rigid back told him it had. The amber of his eyes moltened into gold, and he deliberately turned his gaze from the stiff taijiya to the opening village before them.

Kirara descended, the fire of her black paws flickering like a beacon against the cloud-cover that reflected the shadows of the earth below. The fields lay barren and turned, the huts huddling together like old grannies in the cold. He could see his breath before him like a wispy, ethereal cloud in the night, and there was the sharp scent of snow or icy rain in the air. The wind rose, stirring the ends of his silver-white hair and brushing a trailing side-lock against his cheek. He warily avoided Sango's flying ponytail, growling softly as she bent her head and the long black tresses flared out in a fan at the movement.

He had to duck, avoiding her long tail once again as Kirara swung to the right, circling in to land in front of the old miko's hut.

'Damn it, anyway!'

He scowled, his unspoken frustration finding a focus on Sango's hair. He should grab it in his claws and hold on so it wouldn't try and smack him, but he didn't know how Sango would react if he were to suddenly grab the damn thing...

His attention was jerked back into focus as the small sound of jangling rings made his sensitive ears twitch. His eyes shot down to the earth, and he could make out the darker blue shadow of the houshi running toward them. There was a blurred white face parting the darkened bamboo of Kaede's hut, and he could discern the weather-beaten features of the old miko as she slid outside into the night.

Miroku waved his staff at them, making the rings sing in greeting. Kirara rumbled back, the fire on her feet blazing slightly before dying as she touched down. InuYasha's knees tightened at the impact, and he could feel the unfamiliar weight of Hiraikotsu thud against his back as the wind suddenly stilled.

"Sango! InuYasha!" Miroku's smile was as ready as ever, and InuYasha scowled at the houshi. Nothing ever fazed that damn monk.

"Hell, Miroku, what the hell are you doing up at this gods-forsaken hour?" He growled, sliding off of the neko youkai to stand brace-legged beside her.

"Welcome back, InuYasha." Kaede said drily.

InuYasha jerked his head at the old miko in a sour nod of acknowledgment. Kaede stood at the top of the steps to her hut, her hands folded behind her back, a deceptively serene expression on her weathered features. Ignoring her, InuYasha busied himself getting rid of the awkward boomerang strapped to his back. His claws unknotted the tangled chords, and he heaved a long sigh as he leaned the heavy weight of the boned weapon against the side of Kaede's hut.

"Sango, my beautiful taijiya, allow me to assist you..." Miroku insinuated himself between InuYasha and Kirara, his palm opened for the taijiya's grasp, his offer to help her down off of the neko making InuYasha grit his teeth.

'Damn hentai, already trying to---'

Sango lightly grasped Miroku's fingers, accepting his support when normally she would have brushed him off. Red flashed across InuYasha's vision; though he seethed inside, none of it showed in the glowing amber of his eyes. What right had he to claim Sango's regard? Hell, Miroku had always been a lot more of a ladies' man than he. 'Damn hentai.' And Sango had always gotten along easily with the houshi, far too easily for his peace of mind.

His eyes fastened on their clasped hands, as Miroku's treacherous thumb couldn't stop from circling against Sango's palm in a light, welcoming caress.

Without warning or thought, InuYasha's claws snaked out and he violently shoved Miroku out of the way so he could snatch Sango's opened hand and jerk her off of the damn cat in one fluid motion. Miroku's surprised yelp was cut off as he staggered and regained his balance, and Sango let out a surprised gasp as she was literally torn off the neko's back. InuYasha let go of her hand as soon as her feet were on the earth, and turned his back to face Kaede, though the growl still lightened through him.

Kaede had a stupid, knowing look on her face that just made him want to curl his claws. 'Old hag.' What the hell did she know, anyway? Or THOUGHT she knew? It didn't matter one damn bit that he didn't like that damn hentai grabbing at Sango. He didn't like Miroku touching any woman, damn it.

He scowled back at the old priestess, who just shook her greyed head at him. "Manners have never made a claim on ye, have they InuYasha?"

"Feh. Whatever." Arms folded, he just stood there. There was a whooshing flare behind him, and Kirara hopped up the steps in her kitten form to rub the old miko's sandaled leg with a purr of welcome. InuYasha just glared, but it was Sango who broke in with the thought that was foremost on his mind.

"Where's Kagome, Lady Kaede?"

InuYasha stiffened, but the taijiya ignored him to walk up the steps to Kaede's hut. A soft glow of candle's light came from inside, framing the shielding bamboo curtain behind the elderly miko. InuYasha allowed his senses to expand, seeking the startling fragrance that was Kagome. She was inside, asleep, and her scent was there, making him grit his jaw at the familiarity, and the strange deepening of it...memories flashed over him, and his ears flattened to his skull.

He was walking up the steps, brushing past the miko and taijiya without a word, drawn in by that fragrance. Kaede's sharp words of caution meant nothing to him, the words forgotten as soon as he heard them.

"Don't wake her, InuYasha. She's exhausted, and her fever just broken."

He swept the bamboo aside, and stepped inside, stilling as he caught sight of the young girl who had always meant so much to him, both for herself and for the one he remembered.

'Kagome...'

His eyes softened into gold as he stared at her. She was sleeping, the soft deep breaths telling him to silence his steps as he drew closer. Her scent overwhelmed him, and his nose twitched at the ripening of heavy blossoms that filled the air. She moaned softly, and stirred, as if sensing his presence even in her dreams.

He knelt down beside her, his eyes intense as he took in the changes to her lithe body. The thick pile of blankets that cocooned her could not hide the distinctive bulge of her stomach or the heaviness of her breasts, and he could smell, faintly, the musty odor of the pregnancy that had claimed control over her small body. The world seemed suddenly silent and still, and his ears cocked forward, seeking the sound of her heartbeat, and that of the child's.

Faintly, he could hear the strange staccato of multiple heartbeats under the strong drum of his own and the life-giving rhythm of Kagome's, and he shouldn't have been amazed and awed at the thought, but he was. She was carrying pups. His despised brother's pups, the faint trace of the Taiyoukai was growing stronger as his senses expanded, taking in the multiple variations of her altered scent.

Protective instinct swirled through him, making his amber eyes deepen and darken in awe of the female who carried.

She was a mother...

Hesitant and awed, his claws stretched out as if he would touch the swell of her belly, uncertain if he should.

"Kagome..." Her name was a reverent whisper, almost heartbroken with denied love for her.

His ears perked, a faint sound behind him making him turn his head swiftly.

The taijiya's eyes were wide, their depths almost cinnamon and flickering in the soft glow of yellow candle flame. His nose twitched, and he caught the faint hint of salty wetness in the air. He froze, staring back at her staring at him and Kagome. He could feel Kaede's gaze boring into his back, and he flinched.

The movement set Sango free, and she uncoiled like a tightly wound spring. With hardly a whisper of sound, she was gone, out of the hut. InuYasha's ears flattened against his head, and his eyes goldened in the light, staring at the sweeping shiver of the bamboo as it settled back into place behind the disappearing taijiya.

Kaede's gravely voice intruded. "Go." She said simply, her single eye dark with an unfathomable emotion.

InuYasha hesitated. "Kagome..."

"She is safe with us. She sleeps." Kaede said dryly. "She has been safe with us these past five months, there will be no change this day in her."

He nodded, distracted, eyes on the bamboo doorway.

"She needs ye, InuYasha." Kaede nodded toward the door, so that there would be no confusion as to WHO needed him.

InuYasha cast a last look back at the sleeping girl who had loved him, and whom his love endangered. He had failed to protect her. As he failed to protect Kikyo. Kagome had survived without him, as Kikyo had. Kikyo had made her contempt known, and Kagome had been claimed by his brother, the Taiyoukai. There was nothing for him there.

"Do not deny ye self happiness, InuYasha." Kaede said, her words imprinting across his mind. "Ye deserve it as much as any."

The old miko's calloused palm came up to grip his arm in a warm clasp ofunderstanding. "Seek ye own forgiveness, my son." With that sage advice, the elderly miko turned her back on him and knelt down beside the dampened fire, her fingers taking up the abandoned work she had left to investigate their arrival.

Suddenly freed, InuYasha sprang for the door, sweeping past the startled monk and neko youkai who had taken up residence on the steps. Miroku's startled question was cut off and ignored.

"Hey! What's wrong, InuYasha?"

The red glow of the neko youkai's eyes was the only answer to the monk's query, the hanyou had already disappeared.


	56. Chapter FiftyFive: Shudder

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, etc. Yadayadayada...

WARNING: LEMONS SERVED. (LIMES FOR FF . NET) NO ONE UNDER 17 PLEASE!

Chapter Fifty-Five (Shudder)

The first icy touch of snow on her cheek went unheeded by the the taijiya, whose cheeks were already covered in the warm wetness of her tears. She had fled the village, not knowing where she was going and not caring, just wanting to run from the pain of seeing his love for Kagome shining in his golden-amber eyes. She had managed to hold back her tears until she was far enough away so that it would not matter if she wept out her heart's loneliness to the uncaring forest around her.

Stumbling along in the darkness, her soul was crying in pain. The knot inside of her heart tightened until her breath came in gasping shudders as she forced her tired legs to carry her further into the blackest night. Tomorrow, she would cover her sadness once more in silent denial, pulling back the mask she held over her heart. That was easy, she had done it before and she would do it again. But tonight, she could not seal away the hurt and deny it's existence.

His love for Kagome was unbroken. The beautiful miko had hold of his heart, and there was nothing left for Sango. His kisses, his tenderness, had only stemmed from the need of his lonely soul...they had meant nothing to him, the mere comfort of a friend and companion, not the first tentative touch of a lover's question.

A sob escaped her lips, and she stumbled on, the warmth of her tears tingling across the chilled flush of her pale skin. The world was icily dead around her, as dead as her vain hopes. She had dared to love the unreachable, and she had paid with her heart's blood for her stupidity...

The wintry edge of the night enfolded her, and she actually welcomed its icy kiss on her flesh. The dropping flakes of white snow were ignored, their touch soft and unheeding as her memories twisted upon themselves.

...I want you to live strong. ... Her father's words echoed in her mind, stabbing across the bitterness of her lonely thoughts.

'How can I?' All was lost to her, she had no hope of ever finding happiness. She had not been honest with herself, had not grasped how deeply she loved the hanyou who was forever denied her. Her heart cracked and bled, but she knew, deep in the darkness that clouded her mind, that this, too, would pass. She was strong...she would survive. InuYasha had freed her from the pain of her past, he had given her the gift to know that she could continue, and find, perhaps, some peace, some day.

But not now. Not when the pain was so raw and deep, the wound in her soul too tender to be sealed over and ignored---

She gasped as sharp claws grabbed her shoulder, and instinct had her whirling around and wrenching free of that hard hold. Her katana was out of its sheath with a hiss, the deadly length gleaming silver in the strange luminance of the snow-clouded night. Nerves screamed to life at the sudden movement, and she froze in a defensive crouch, her eyes widening into darkened orbs as the tears dried beneath the sudden realization that he was there, arms braced and eyes glowing, the deadly tip of her sword pointed straight at his neck.

"Damn it, Sango! Why the hell do you always have to have that damn pot-sticker at my throat?!"

She blinked, a tremor passing through her as she dropped the sword from beneath his hard, stubborn chin. She bowed her head, stepping back away from him. Why was he HERE, mocking her pain with his brash words? She couldn't stand it.

'Leave me be!'

Why could he not leave her alone, just this once? She didn't want him to see how raw she was, how close to the surface her heart's pain was.

She shook her head at him, unable to speak for the tears that were once again gathering behind her eyes. Delicate snowflakes fell against the black midnight of her hair, melting into their own tears so that the length hung heavy down her back, silkily clinging to the wetness on her cheeks. She deliberately turned away, her hands shaking as they sheathed her katana. She needed to flee, she didn't want him there, seeing her heart's loss or the scalding tears of her foolishness.

His arm shot out, his claws gripping once more over her shoulder as she backed away from him. She tensed, reflexively reaching for her sword hilt before deliberately ignoring the urge. If she fought free, he would only grab her again. She needed to tell him to leave her alone, the stubborn hanyou was too thick-headed to see that she didn't want anyone around her right now, damn him.

Her voice was hoarse and strained, even to her own ears. "Let me go. I need to be...alone," she nearly choked on the word, forcing back a sob, "...right now."

"Sango." How could her name be so wonderful on his lips? How could the deep tone of his whisper cause her to shudder and the tears to spill over?

Her hands came up to push him away. "No, InuYasha. Don't! Leave me be---"

"Damn you to hell." He growled at her, his claws firming on her shoulder and swinging her around so that both hands could grip her upper arms in his strong palms. He shook her, the fury in his voice making her draw back. "Damn it, Sango! Don't run from me!"

His hands were like a steeled vice as he dragged her stiff body closer. She froze in that hard grip, stunned and uncomprehending as he pulled her into his heat, his arms coming to encircle her tightly as he buried his head in the wet tangle of her black hair, breathing in her scent and shuddering against her.

She could feel every inch of him, her raw nerves prickling to life from the cold that had numbed both mind and body. He pressed her firmly to him, and she wanted to sob at the warm comfort of it.

But it was a lie. He loved Kagome. She couldn't allow him to grab her up and try to deny that there was anything he felt for her other than sorrowed repentance for her stupid mistake.

She struggled, and he growled, his hands sweeping up her back to hold her still against his chest. She froze once more as the fingers of his left hand came up to touch her dampened cheek. She flinched from the contact, and his claws grasped her chin in a steely grip as his eyes, washed in golden fire, bore into hers.

His head tilted, and she knew then that he meant to kiss her. 'No!' Her mind cried out in denial, the wash of her pain overriding her disbelief.

She renewed her struggles, desperate now. The tears fell down her cheeks in hot scalding paths as the flush burned her skin. She struggled for freedom, her body tensing under the onslaught on her senses. His hold tightened, so that she could barely breathe and she gasped in outraged sorrow as his hand slipped from her chin to cradle the back of her head, white claws tangling in the damp heaviness of her hair as he pulled her mouth up to his.

"DON'T!" She cried out against him, her soul shuddering.

Crimson flashed across the overwhelming gold of his eyes, and she tried to twist her head away as his fangs appeared, a possessive growl thundering between them. She didn't want this, the rage of the inu overcoming his soul, which was tied to Kagome, not her...

His mouth crashed down on hers, and her protest was muffled under the harsh claiming of his kiss. He forced her lips open with his, his tongue sweeping in to ravage her senses. Her struggles died under the fierce blaze of his demand, as his arms tightened their grip around her, keeping her supine beneath his superior strength. Pure fire shot down her spine, making her tremble with the awesome, flaring sensation of it as his mouth slanted over hers again and again, robbing her of breath and stealing the fight from her with the primal urges that seized them both.

'InuYasha...' Her mind whispered her heart's love as her body melted into his, the fierce desire that roared through him transferring to her in the hot heat of his mouth. His tongue swept in and across, deepening the kiss until she could feel the prick of his fangs on the inside of her lips as he pulled her tongue into his mouth. Tentative, uncertain, it was she who moved upwards to wrap her arms around his neck, her mouth seeking more of his heat as her body pressed against his, the slight dampness of their clothing unheeded by the throbbing passion that scalded their bodies and molded them into one. Their tongues danced in desire, dueled for possession, and explored with growing hunger as the world was forgotten around them.

The growl at the back of his throat sent tingling sensations down her flushed body all the way to her toes. She pressed along his hard length, whimpering softly when his mouth left hers for a moment's breath before coming back to ravish her senses once more. His arms tightened, his claws pulling her up to drag her fiery core against his, his hips rocking in instinctive reaction. The motion made her quiver with unknown need, making her fingers spasm against the curve of his neck as her hands tangled in the thick silver-white mane of his hair.

The world dissolved around them, the kiss unleashing a primitive desireandurge that neither had known existed. They clung desperately to each other, and the snow fell around them unnoticed, its icy kiss no match for the fiery passion that melted them into one...

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They seperated, gasping, only when the breath was thundering in their ears and their lungs protested with the need for air, long denied. Sango fell against him, burying her head in his chest as he shuddered beneath her, his solid strength tested by the passion that had gripped them both. His claws curled over her hair, freeing the long heavy tail of it with a casual swipe of his claws against the tough leather thong that bound it up behind her. Black tresses rippled down her back, the ends curling against her waist as he buried his nose in the sweet fragrance of it, the essence of her tinged with the sharp sting of fallen snow and fallen tears.

"Sango..." He breathed her name into the heavy, midnight wave with wonder and awe, the emotions inside of him reaching further into his soul than ever he had dared hope.

Her breath was warm against the opened vee of his haori, and the blood thundered in his ears, demanding release. His claws tightened in reaction, and he pulled back to stare into her eyes. Cinnamon and honey dominated the deep depths of her wonder, the sparkle of her tears tiny diamonds in the luminance of the snowy night around them.

He had never known a woman's touch, had never dared hope that he might. He had always been unsure and hesitant, uncertain whether his advances would be rebuffed in disgust or anger. Kikyo had always been cloaked in the icy sanctity and withdrawal of her miko training; Kagome always a reminder to him of his first love. He had never known this raging blood, this roaring desire to stake his claim and demand his dominance over Sango's mind, body and soul.

Uncertainty fled, and his eyes smoldered into golden fire, his voice strange even to his own ears as he said in a tone stronger than his own, "Come with me."

Sango shivered, the knowledge deep in her eyes that this was more than just a claiming. It was forever.

A shudder ran through her, as the thought pierced her that she stood on the brink of a precipice of decision, and that how she decided would affect her in ways even she could not fully comprehend. It was now or never. Would she give her love freely, and trust in it? Could she trust HIM with it? To stay forever alone, and leave forever unknown what might lie before her, or to abandon all of her carefully guarded emotions and open herself to the unforeseen. For who knew just what the inu was capable of? She had a vague idea of what she might sacrifice if she were to go, now, and forever, with InuYasha. The inu was overwhelming, and was she honestly willing to risk herself for love?

For a moment, there was fear in the knowledge of losing all control, for once she gave, she could not take back. But she had never allowed fear to rule her...

Her eyes searched his for a long moment, to where he couldn't breathe, and then she nodded her head, once, the movement slight. Her body, tensed and stiffened in self-argument, seemed to fold into his as she released her inner demons to his keeping, giving control of what came into his claws. Closing her eyes, she buried her head back into his chest as his arms swept her legs up to cradle her against him. Nestling her slight body to his, he took a running leap into the air, his claws digging as he felt the muscles of his calves tensing for the first, all-important heft of his body into the swirly snow around them.

He arched his back, his eyes scanning the black skeletons of the trees beneath, searching for the familiar landmarks that would take him to where he wanted to go---a secret spring nestled under an outcropping of mossy rocks. In spring, when he had first discovered the heated pool, it had been covered in a thick growth of mighty trees, their leafy branches a canopy to hide the secret beneath them. He had often thought about surprising Kagome with it, taking her there just to hear her delighted surprise at the hidden treasure. But he had never seemed to have the time, or the right moment to tell her...and something within him had kept it silent, locked within, thinking that, perhaps, he could one day take his love there, and kiss her under the heavy blossoms that covered it in bowered glory.

The blossoms would be gone now, the trees stripped of their leaves. There would be no canopy to cover them underneath the soft fall of snow that descended. But the silence was deep, and his heart stirred with the knowledge that he could make his love known, there in the burble of the rippling water, the steam undulating over them as awakened passion built to brilliance...

'There.'

He spied the gentle wisps of rising steam, heard the soft hiss as the colder snow hit the warmer water beneath, sending wrinkles across the placid surface like raindrops. A single leaf, browned and dampened in the water, sailed across the surface by the capricious waves that twirled it around and around. It danced and spun, and his heart tightened as his arms did as well. Sango kept her head tucked beneath him, trusting him to protect her. His eyes glowed with the thought of her strength, and the gift of her trust.

His eyes deepened into ambered gold as he descended to the earth, his legs bracing for the impact as their hair, ghostly white and deepest night, swirled and fanned in the wind of their descent. He felt for the rocky verge with his claws, and he gentled the landing with the braced flex of his thighs. Sango breathed a sigh against him, and InuYasha's heart clenched in answer.

Uncertainty was cast to the winds, his blood thundering as his claws curled around the taijiya's back. He nuzzled his face into the scent of her hair, nostrils expanding to take in the very essence of her. Bracing her legs with his right hand, he slid his left palm up the sweeping arch of her back and used his thumb to lift her chin and cradle the back of her head. Her eyes were dark shadows, her lips an invitation he could not resist.

His arms locked as his mouth descended to hers, the first touch tentative, exploring. But as her hands tightened around his waist and swept up his back to hold him closer, the fire in his blood was ignited, and he crushed her lips to his. Closing his eyes, he fell into that kiss, his tongue sweeping inside the warm, moist heat of her mouth to touch and dance and claim. He bent her head back so that he could open her mouth further, growling deep in the back of his throat when she whimpered at the fierce possession of it.

She was like melted honey in his arms, and he pulled her into his heat, his body demanding more. His blood thundered with emblazoning passion, making his manhood firm to throbbing life as he slid his claws along the inside of her knees. Her scent was spiked with arousal, and he growled again, the red call of desire flashing through his vision. Carefully, he pulled her around so that he could lower her slim legs to the ground. She stood on tiptoe, her mouth never leaving his, leaning into his firmer weight, her hands trailing up his back and tangling in the silver-white mane of his hair.

She was a flaming brand in his hands, so easily ignited it startled him with its intensity.

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Steam soon covered them, and he slid his claws up to her waist, plucking at the scarlet sash that held her katana to her side. She arched into him, desiring the firm heat of his chest against the softness of hers, but he was distracted, his need darkening his eyes into liquid amber as his fingers were betrayed by the intricate knots of her armor.

Growling, his mouth moved from hers to touch his tongue on the side of her throat, his claws on the back of her neck sweeping her long tresses to the side so that he could nibble and distract, and see the scarlet band on her waist. Sango moaned against him, lost in her own passion, and he mentally cursed as the sash eluded him once again.

Frustrated need sharpened his claws to deadly points, and he swiped them across the tough silk, careful not to pierce her armor. Her katana, sheathed in wood, fell to the ground with a clatter, and she stiffened, her deep brown eyes springing open in surprise.

'Damn stick.' He mentally growled. He tried to distract her again, hauling her mouth to his, but her hands fisted on the front of his red haori, stopping him, her eyes blinking in dazed wonder, the blush creeping along her pale skin with a maiden's modesty. She stepped back, away from him, her head bowed so that he could see nothing but the bright flush that covered her cheeks.

'DAMN.'

He took a deep breath, the desire of his heated blood thundering through him. But he would not maul her over, he cared too much to just rape her as his body demanded. His ears flattened, and his eyes glowed with a feverish light as he tried to still the raging of his denied lust.

His mouth fell open in surprise when Sango's fingers reached for the intricate ties to her black body armor. "Allow me." She whispered, her gaze sweeping up to meet his with darkened desire before dropping back down to his feet, the blush staining her pale cheeks with high color.

"Sango..." Her name was a wonder to him, amazement and need intertwined.

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She tried, instinctively, to pull away, but he growled, the fierceness of it surprising them both. She tensed in his arms, going rigid at that guttural sound of raw need. Her eyes flew open and widened at the crimsoned light of his own.

"InuYasha." She said, her voice low and wary, her passion dissolving under the demon lust that was locked in his gaze. She tried to back away, her hands pushing against his chest, and his fangs flashed as his blood raged.

::SUBMIT!:: He snarled in the primitive speech of the inu-youkai. She could not understand his words, but her fear was tangible.

"Don't, InuYasha!" She withdrew from him, her eyes deepening. "Not like this..."

The heart-ache in her voice called out to him, and the red lust cleared from his amber gaze. A look of raw need swept over his features, and then he buried his head into her shoulder, his ears lowered against the dampened tangles of his silver-white hair. "Sango..."

He shuddered, the consuming fires raging, his slim control barely restraining the demon who growled and snarled that this female was his, that he should take her, and NOW!

Sango's fingers traced a path along his cheek, coaxing his chin upwards. He allowed her to raise his face up, but he kept his eyes down, away from hers, the torture of denied passion too hard to bear, the torture of his heart in making the strong taijiya ever fear him even more bitter.

"InuYasha..." Sango's voice was soft. "Look at me."

His eyes flicked up to hers, which were a honeyed almond with the unfathomable emotions that pooled in their depths. "This is new to both of us..." She said, her voice wrapping around him like the steamy vapors that whispered and flowed between them. The ends of her long black hair floated and curled in the eddying water, his own silver tendrils circling in the surging water to feather across hers and swirl away with the small currents.

Amber deepened as he stared into her eyes. A blush crept across her skin, a hint of uncertainty swirling across the honey-brown depths. Her fingers trailed a caress along the strong line of his jaw, and he stilled beneath her at the light touch. "I...I'm afraid." She was honest, the fear in her voice making him tighten his arms around her to try and express understanding.

Her eyes dropped down, the flush brightening its stain across her white cheeks. "You are stronger than I...I fear the demon inside of you...it has..."

He pulled her against his chest, his claws tightening in the tangles of her hair. "Sango." He said, his voice hoarse as he shuddered beneath her. "I would never willingly hurt you."

"I know." She whispered that against his shoulder. "I...am...not afraid of YOU...I am...just...frightened of all this..." Her hands dropped to his shoulders and tightened their soft grip.

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"Sango!" He hissed. "I don't know if I can control---"

She drew a long, shuddering breath, her body trembling for a moment before she raised her head to look him in the eyes once more. Her eyes were dewed with longing and a suggestion of emotional vulnerability, as if she was unsure of the feelings roiling inside of her. Something flickered in the warm brown eyes, a hint of knowledge that to offer herself was to lose control, something someone as strong as she would fear. He had never seen her emotions so freed in her gaze, and he was taken aback at the sudden acceptance that glowed therein. His ears twitched at her soft whisper. "I...understand."

His voice was raw, trying to explain and warn her. The feelings were too overwhelming, too new. He didn't know if he could stop them, once released. "Sango...I...can't be gentle."

"I know." She cupped the side of his face, her eyes warm.

"I...there will be pain..."

"I understand."

"Sango..."

She took a deep breath, releasing it in a blushing whisper as her eyes dropped back down, away from his. "I am strong, InuYasha. I can handle it."

He shook her lightly, his claws coming up to grip her shoulders. "Do you understand what I am trying to tell you?"

"Yes." Her fingers combed the damp tendrils of silver white hair from his cheek in a soft caress. "I do."

He shuddered, pulling her closer to him, allowing the soft curves of her body to play across the taut firmness of his muscles. "Sango...I..."

She raised her head, her eyes deep with emotion. Her fingers curled around his jaw, and she drew his mouth down to hers. Her lips opened, her tongue thrusting inside and brushing over his fangs before twining around his tongue and lightly sucking on the end. InuYasha groaned, his arms pulling her close as his blood stirred to raging life once more...

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"InuYasha..." Her voice was low, whimpering in desire and half-hidden fear.

::Female.:: The inu growled, his eyes crimson fire. The barrier of her maidenhood had stopped his advance, and his growl deepened against her throat. Flexing his claws against her hips, he held her immobile beneath him. For a single moment, he paused, his fangs just barely touching the delicate white skin that throbbed beneath his mouth, her heart-beat speeding up. She shivered, and that small motion released him.

Snarling, his fangs sank deep into the pulse-point of her throat.

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FF . NET - Sorry the chapter is so choppy, but lemons is lemons, and ff . Net doesn't like 'em. If you are old enough and like lemonade, you can read the unedited, NC 17 version on adult fan fiction (dot) net, A Single Spark, or mediaminer (dot) org.


	57. Chapter FiftySix: Promise Me

Disclaimer: Inuyasha, etc. is owned by Rumiko Takahashi, and not me. Raidon is temporarily borrowed from Fairia13, but as he is not appearing in this chapters, and will not appear outside of 'blush'...on with the story...

A/N: Quick thanks for revived inspiration from Fairia13, Vyncent and Tausha. A whole gallon of thanks to the first IY movie, which sparked some great emotional fire in me to resolve this chapter, which has been two months in the writing and bucketfuls of gratitude to Jazngurl, who translated my requests/ideas into proper Japanese vocab. My AOL account is back up, and I will try to catch up on my email. Thank you for your patience and continued support. Here's a little nonsense that goes on behind the scenes...heh-heh-heh.

Fairia: Hola.

Fate: (silence)

Fairia: Turn up the volume on your speakers!!!

Fate: Oops. Oh, hey, girl.

Fairia: Question. Where's my OC, Raidon?

Fate: (silence)

Fairia: Hello? Fate?

IM Note: "The subscriber you seek is no longer signed on."

Fairia: DAMMIT! I need him for just ONE scene in "Stronger"!

Fate: (Offline) "Here, kitty, kitty..."

'Raidon licks dry lips, hiding under the bed.' "Gawd, please, no...please, gawd..."

WARNING: LEMONS! (LIMES FOR FF . NET) NO ONE UNDER 17!

Chapter Fifty-Six (Promise Me)

He was heavy atop her, she couldn't breathe, and her sobs were gasping against his shoulder as he shuddered and groaned. Sango closed her eyes, her body afire with the pain. She had not known what would happen when she thrust herself into the crimson blaze of his demon lust.

He stirred above her, and she choked back a sob as he removed his weight to fall back into the swirling water. His claws still curled over her hips and she flinched at the deep scratches he had left there in his consuming lust. He slid her deeper into the spring with him, and she gasped as the heated water seared across the scratches on her belly and breasts. His hands moved up her back, and hauled her close to him, and she tried not to stiffen in his tight embrace.

His head rose up from where it rested against her shoulder, and his eyes opened, the red mists of the inu youkai receding as the gold re-emerged. She shivered in reaction, and his eyes suddenly blazed amber, his ears flattening against the wet tangles of his whitened silver hair.

"Sango?" He asked, his voice soft and wondering.

She closed her eyes, unable to meet his gaze. How could he have known what the demon had done to her? How could he guess?

"Damn." His breath seared across the throbbing mark at the side of her neck. His eyes locked on it, watching as a single drop of blood pooling and dissolving into a red cloud as it touched the water. Steam curled her bangs over her forehead, and her skin was white, the wet tracks of her tears a sign he couldn't ignore.

"Sango, I..." He cleared his throat, uncertain.

She just shook her head, mute. She had paid the price of her incaution. He had not known, neither of them had known, what the inu was capable of.

"It's...all right..." She whispered, her voice hitching.

"No it isn't, damn it." He growled at her, and she flinched. He stilled suddenly, his eyes widening as his ears perked. He looked at her intently, the gold of his eyes deepening.

'How could he have known? The demon was too strong...'

"Too strong?" He asked her in confusion, and her brown eyes opened in surprise. Had she said the thought aloud?

"You didn't say a word, but I could hear you...in my head." His ears flattened, and he stared uncomfortably at the red mark that pulsed at her throat. "That must hurt." He said in a gruff voice, and leaned forward to touch it with the tip of his tongue, intending to use his healing saliva to close the small edges of the wound that still remained opened.

Sango shuddered at the touch, something flaring across her awareness as his tongue lapped over the mating mark. Heat pooled low in her belly, and she flinched at the raw hunger of it.

His nostrils expanded, taking in her scent, and the amber of his gaze darkened. He lapped once more at the mark, watching her shudder in reaction, and then pulled his mouth free.

'I don't understand. How can I feel this way? Does he know what is happening to me, when he touches me like that?'

"I can smell your desire." He said, voice husky. She opened her eyes in surprise, a flush staining her pale cheeks. She should have known. Inu youkai had the strongest sense of smell, stronger than any other...

His eyes traveled over the scratches on her breasts and belly. "I'm sorry." He said, ears lowered.

"It's all right." She murmured, embarrassed that he was looking so closely at her body. She had never been one to care, overly, but her skin was marked with the scars of battle. It was not smooth and white, unblemished and unbroken. Her past battles, both triumphs and defeats, were mapped out on her skin, and she didn't like him staring so intently at her.

Drawing back, out of his embrace, she lowered her arms over her breasts. Hugging herself, she kept the shame inside. "I'm all right." She said in a low whisper.

"No." He replied, his voice hard. She looked up, startled. The gold that blazed in his amber eyes made her frown and her spine stiffen.

"InuYasha. I'm fine." She insisted, daring him to disagree.

He grit his teeth at her, his amber eyes glowing. "No. You're. Not."

"InuYasha, don't you dare think that you are---" She started, her brown eyes lightening into outrage.

He grinned at her, fangs flashing. "Is that a challenge?"

She blinked in surprise at the amusement that lit his eyes. Was he crazy?

"Yes." He answered her thought, grabbing her by the shoulders and hauling her close to him. He pushed her body up out of the water as if it were weightless, jumping out beside her to lean across her shivering frame and snag his red haori up off of the ground. The snow still fell in lazy flakes, which dissolved as they touched the water or their heated skin. The ground, as well, was not frozen enough for the flakes to stay, and the earth remained damp and dark, untouched by the whiteness that sprinkled down from the hovering clouds.

He swirled his haori out across the ground, grabbed her by the waist with one arm and hauled her onto his lap so that they sat upon the thick cloth, their feet dangling in the water.

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He chuckled slightly, a smug chuckle, and she wanted to smack him upside the head with her Hiraikotsu, the hentai.

"Hentai, am I?" He growled at her, and she flinched. She would have moved away, but his arms around her wouldn't let her go.

"InuYasha..." She warned, growling herself. She could easily slip out of his grasp, she had the training. She just didn't want to hurt him, and it was so easy to---

"Not so easy." He tightened his arms and turned her around in a single motion that made her dizzy with the hanyou-aided speed of it. They lay, him half-covering her, on the bank, his haori blanketing the colder ground beneath them. The heat from his skin drove the shivers from hers, and she moved instinctively closer to his warmth.

His eyes searched hers, the amber darkening as he sought something in her gaze. She blushed, uncertainty weaving through her mind, unable to fathom why he stared at her. Even now, when she was irritated with him, she could not keep the love from creeping across the back of her thoughts like the swirling vapor of steam that curled over and around them.

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His eyes glowed with the knowledge of her love, the mating mark at the pulse-point of her throat ensuring that her mind was now bared to his, though she could not know the thoughts that consumed him, could not understand how deeply the mark had now sealed them together. She knew---dispassionately, with her knowledge of youkai---what it was, but not what it meant.

She lowered her eyes, unable to keep up the intensity of his stare. She turned her head to the side, looking out toward the snowy sky beyond the tree-shrouded spring that surrounded them. Her unconscious movement exposed her neck, an inu response for submitting, and he kissed the mark of his dominance. She trembled at the brush of his lips on her wound, uneasy with the arrow of fire that shot through her body.

She stirred, but his powerful thigh thrown over her legs kept her still as his claws lightly circled the curve of her breast. The tip puckered in response, and she made a low noise in the back of her throat. "InuYasha...I'm..."

"Shhh..." His hot breath whispered across her skin. He bent his head, his tongue coming out to lap at the scratch that covered one side of her breast.She hissed in her breath at the warm touch of his mouth, her body quivering as he concentrated on healing the small wound with the curative properties of his saliva. He turned his attention to the next one, a deeper flick from his claws. His ears lowered to his head in mute apology. She tried to shift her hips aside, but his hands firmed on her stomach, keeping her supine...

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Bracing himself up above her, he waited for her erratic breaths to quiet into softness, for her awakened body to stop trembling in the aftermath of discovery, and for her to open her eyes---her beautiful, cinnamon-touched brown eyes that had kept buried her most secret thoughts behind a cool regard and solid shield against a desolately horror-filled world.

'Always lonely, and always alone...'

How long had he heard that mantra repeated in his own mind? How often had he gazed upon the world, a smirk hiding the pain beneath as he saw others doing what he had never been given a chance to...to reach out across the empty space of lonely existence and find another reaching back, without fear that he might cause hurt and ruination, and find dread and rejection returned because of the difference of his blood...

The taijiya was so like him his gold-swept eyes burned with the knowledge. Honed by desperation and internal doubts...strengthened by resolve and a determination to succeed where others expected failure...sharpened into a keen edge by bitterness and loss...shielded firmly and forever by rejection and deficiency...they were two sides of a single blade. He might hide his emotions behind a veneer of impatient argument, she a cool detachment of self-reliant independence, but both were inaccessible behind the walls they had built around their hearts, afraid of exposing themselves to the fear and rejection they sensed in others...

Each of them had been touched by love, and had it snatched away by cruel claws. Manipulated and taunted, their very heart-strings had been plucked and pulled like a lutist's guitar by the dark hanyou, Naraku. He had been amazed and awed by how Sango had kept herself free from doubting that love...until her brother's death had turned her heart into an icy stone that could not weep for the sorrow and pain that filled its heavy weight. He now knew what gift she had given him...now knew that she, who had loved her brother Kohaku more than her own life, and had once sought to end hers for the mere comfort of her brother's unaccompanied soul, had been given the choice of saving Kohaku or him, InuYasha. He now knew what choice she had made, what price she had paid, and all because her heart delve more deeply and loved him, half-breed bastard that he was, more than anything...more than kin, more than kindred, more than life, more than love...

"Sango..."

He whispered her name, his eyes liquid gold and pierced with unspoken emotion. She loved him...HIM...hanyou...half-breed...bastard son of a demon lord and despised mother...loved for far longer and far deeper than he could ever guess, could ever dream...

The whisper of fevered dreams when she lay ill in his arms by youkai-battled wounds had hinted of her heart. But her mind, now bared to his by the mating mark that glinted like fire on the white column of her throat, told him the secret, sad whispers of her isolated heart.

Always lonely, and always alone...

She had believed---as he had---that there would never, ever be a chance for her to find love...to find solace and comfort and unconditional acceptance...loyalty and and companionship...a haven of trust and a home for her lonely and embittered soul...battered by loss, strengthened by pain, shielded by barriers against riddling recrimination and seething self-doubts as to the worthiness of ever being found deserving of that love...

Always lonely, and always alone...

His breath caught as her eyes fluttered open, the scarlet outline tattooing the ivory lids as she blinked up at him shining like a trail of unshed tears, pouring out her heart's blood in a scarlet line of bleak sorrow. Her eyes were honeyed and dazed with wonder, and the strong heart that beat in his chest clenched tight as understanding burned his amber eyes into molten gold.

As her eyes focused on him, the cinnamon dominating the beautiful brown depths, he leaned down and whispered against her lips, "Yakusoku shite."

'Promise me.'

Always lonely, and always alone...

Confusion sparked across her honeyed gaze, and she repeated his words in a whispered question. "Yakusoku wa?"

...Promise me?...

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Always lonely, and always alone...

His gaze was intense, the gold of his eyes overwhelming her vision as his body overwhelmed her senses. His voice was low, and fervent with the demanding emotion of his sad and lonely soul. "Yakusoku shite kudasai...kimi wa ore no da."

'Promise me...you are mine.'

565656 Edited out. 565656

Always lonely, and always alone...

"Kimi wa ore no da, Sango." He said again, his breathless voice warm against her as he nuzzled the mark of his mating. His words burned across her mind in wonder, and she stared at him in sudden realization at just what he was saying, though his spoken words said nothing except to claim her as his.

'You are mine, Sango.'

"Aisheteru."

I love you...

I love...YOU...

He made sweet love to her, his heart glowing in his eyes, the gift making the tears of soul-touched understanding bathe her cheeks. She could not stop staring deep into his eyes.

They stared at one another, golden amber and honeyed cinnamon. The silver white luminance of his hair fell forward to shield her, so that it seemed the world around them had dissolved into only theirs. Her love blossomed in her eyes, and she repeated the words he had whispered into her ear, the wonder of them curling between them.

"Yakusoku shimasu. Watashi wa anata no."

...I promise. I am yours. ...

He shuddered as she admitted her inner heart into his keeping, and could not keep the possessive growl that rumbled through him as she cried out her heart's pledge to his.

"Anata no!"

...Yours!...

He buried his silver head into her shoulder, locking his arms tightly around her as his soul shuddered with the release of pent-up emotion and fear and loneliness and became healed by the unfathomable gift of eternal love and trust and acceptance.

Always lonely, and always alone...

Never again.


	58. Chapter Fifty Seven: Glare

A/N: I truly apologize for the length of time it has taken me to update. My muse fled the country, and I have spent the last few months scouring the globe for her. I have made up for it by posting quite a few chapters all at once. For those of you awaiting more S/K interaction, that will be coming up in the next post. XD Extreme thanks go to Vyncent and Fairia for much inspiration, encouragement in dark hours, and editing. Other thanks are showered among all of the people who urged me to UPDATE, lol - not the least of which was #1 Vengeance Fan. I also want to thank all the S'Spark fans out there for nominating Vengeance for seven different categories in their third Annual Awards. I almost had a cat when I saw that. HOLY FART! THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH! Just being nominated is one helluva honor, and I really, really thank y'all!

Fate

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.

Japanese Words

kotodama nenju - rosary around InuYasha's neck

WARNING: Some dark imagery, some squeezed lime added (not truly lime, but alluded). Some language, word edit on f f (dot) n e t. No one under 17, please!

Chapter Fifty-Seven (Glare)

Hooded eyes stared into the blue-white blaze of the mirror held before him. His red eyes glowed faintly with calculation as he studied the huddled mass of wolves trekking their way across the barren wasteland that housed the current site of his lair.

They were a pathetic lot, these northern wolves. Mangy and grey-haired, they were weak youkai he could kill with a word, or absorb into himself at will...

He toyed with the idea. It might be fun to have them flee in terror before him, watching as each of their brothers were snatched up in his entrapping tentacles, drawn in and fed to his body, their screaming howls of terror and fright echoing in their panic-filled minds, savoring their horror as their jyaki fed his strength...

He licked his lips sensuously, delighted anticipation making his crimson eyes glow bloody for a moment, before his more practical mind dismissed the idea. They were weak, hardly worth the effort. He could find better uses for them. The ambitious greed of their pathetic leader, a young ookami named Katashi, could be put to good use.

That pathetic wolf thought to ally himself with him, desiring vengeance on what the pathetic fool thought was a common enemy: Koga.

A slight smirk curled the sensual mouth. As if he, Naraku, would have any need for such a worthless youkai as that ookami pup.

And yet...

His mind seethed with possibilities. Intriguing notions that delighted him as much as the thought of maddened terror did. Intricate plans circled through his mind, drawing out his cleverness with wooing intensity...he loved to tangle the webs of deceit.

'After all, I am but a spider...' He grinned to himself, feeling the burnt mark on his back tense in anticipation.

He dismissed the mirror with a wave of his hand, and his eldest daughter, his first incarnation of the Void, Kanna, lowered her shining mirror and hugged it to her child's chest, her black eyes dead and emotionless, a reflection of the soul of the dark hanyou before her...

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Hearing a faint rustle above him, Miroku looked up, instinctively grabbing his staff where he had thrust it beside him in the damp earth as he knelt beside the spring over his morning ablutions. Blinking back surprise, he watched in amazed silence as InuYasha-whose sleeves had caught his attention as they snapped against the wind of his aerial passage-arched down to land with his usual gravity-defying softness in the browned grass beside him.

What had the monk staring was that Sango was clutched in the hanyou's arms like he would never let go. A slight flush stained the taijiya's pale cheeks, and she dropped her brown eyes from the houshi's shyly. Miroku took in InuYasha's smug smirk and realization smacked him up-side the head as hard as Sango's open-handed palm ever had.

"Morning." InuYasha said, carefully setting the demon slayer on her feet, casually curling his arms around the taijiya's thin waist when she tried to move away. Sango's fingers were clasped tightly over the hilt of the katana held in her arms, and she wouldn't meet Miroku's eyes.

Miroku hesitated a bare moment, before his usual charm reasserted itself. "Ah...yes...a fine morning to you both."

"She's mine, monk." White fangs gleamed as InuYasha tossed that volley out with characteristic grace.

Sango's face flamed, and her voice was low with admonition. "InuYasha..."

InuYasha stepped back away from the slayer and put his hands on his hips. "What? It's not as if Miroku won't know that we-"

The houshi's blue eyes went from one face to the other with intense interest. InuYasha looked smug as he said companionably to Miroku, "You know, monk, she's in love with me."

Sango looked as if she were contemplating murder. Her brown eyes were alight with a warning that had Miroku backing up a good half-step in instinctive reaction. He had seen that look before.

"InuYasha." Sango's soft voice was dangerous.

"What?" InuYasha gave the taijiya an irritated scowl. "I can read your thoughts, you know, and I am not about to let you thrust that damn stick in my belly."

Honey-brown eyes narrowed in calculation, and the slayer dropped her sword and leapt at the cocky hanyou, knocking him down on the ground where she held him pinned beneath her.

A graceful black brow rose as the monk regarded his friends with more than a little interest. He considered the pair of them, his indigo eyes caressing the soft contours of Sango's backside, which was perfectly angled for him to ogle.

He flushed when he caught a pair of golden eyes glaring at him from around Sango's shoulder. "Damn hentai." The hanyou muttered darkly under his breath as Sango stiffened. She turned her head to stare at the intrigued monk as well.

Miroku tried to act nonchalant, and shrugged it off. "I see things have...ah...changed...between the two of you."

InuYasha chuckled, before his claws wrapped lightly around Sango's pinning arms and he had her toppled over and under him in less than an eye-blink. Sango's protest was muffled when the silver-haired hanyou promptly kissed her mouth.

Miroku smiled wryly as he scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably with his bead-wrapped hand.

'Damnation, it's been too long...'

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It was with some trepidation that Sango followed InuYasha and Miroku along the stoned path to Kaede's small hut. Nervously tracing the worn hilt of her katana with her fingers, Sango's steps lagged. For an instant she had regret in her choice last night. Doubts seeped through her tumultuous mind, and she wished she could be anywhere but right there.

'I betrayed my sister.' A picture of Kagome, eyes sad and expression hurt, flickered across her mind, and Sango's shoulders tensed.

'I'm sorry' didn't really seem adequate...

She almost bumped into InuYasha, who had turned around abruptly, crossed his arms over his chest, and scowled at her. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Sango blinked with surprise, before scowling herself. 'I don't like him reading my mind one bit.'

InuYasha just grunted, before uncrossing his arms so he could curl his claws around Sango's bent shoulders and stare into her wary brown eyes. "Quit worrying. I'm here."

Miroku raised a single brow at the pair of them. Sango's heart welled up, and she suddenly wanted to cry at the tenderness and strength in the hanyou's voice.

InuYasha's right hand slid down the slayer's shoulder and grabbed her hand in his, tightly. "C'mon, damn it."

Sango glared.

Give it to InuYasha to ruin a beautiful moment.

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Shippo's tiny fangs appeared as he opened his mouth in a wide yawn. Blinking the sleep away from his green eyes, he stretched out his paws and wiggled his toes before jumping up with his usual early-morning exuberance.

"Morning, Kaede!" He called out, smiling. Everything always seemed all right in the morning. The terrors of the deep night had faded, and his fears for Kagome seemed to have sorted themselves out.

His okaa-san, his real okaa-san, not his adopted miko, had once told him not to worry, that everything worked out with the dawn of a new day. Boy, had she been right! Just look at Kagome. She was sitting right there beside Lady Kaede, smiling wistfully at him. Her beautiful brown eyes were clear of fever, and he could no longer sense the anger in her sacred aura. Rather, it seemed to come out and enfold him in soothing warmth, and Shippo's smile widened into brilliance.

"Okaa-san!" He attacked her with a tight hug, and Kaede chuckled as the little russet head buried itself in Kagome's kimono.

Kagome smoothed her fingers over the rusty-orange locks and whispered, "Shippo-chan."

Something moved under Shippo's little body, and he giggled against his adopted okaa-san's white robe as he felt the faint push again. He would never get used to how active Kagome's belly had become, taking on a life of its own. He wondered idly if the inside of her belly was bruised from all of that kicking.

"I was worried about you, okaa-san." Shippo reached up and played with a long black curl that hung down his okaa-san's shoulder. "But now you're okay, and I'm hungry."

Kagome shook her head at the little fox cub, and whispered conspiratorially, "Me, too."

Kaede took that as license to spoon out the miso soup she had set warming by the fire. Fabric rustled, and the old miko got to her feet. Picking up bowls in her worn hands, the priestess bent over the fire and swung the steaming iron pot closer to her.

Shippo turned in Kagome's lap and took a deep sniff, happily wondering what was for breakfast. As the kitsune's nostrils expanded, he paused a moment and then bounced off Kagome's knee with a loud call of welcome.

"Kirara!" Shippo's green eyes fairly danced with delight as he took a deeper sniff. "And Sango! Okaa-san! Kirara's here! And Sango! And-InuYasha!"

'My family's back!'

And suddenly, they were there, parting the bamboo that hung across the doorway, and InuYasha was glaring at the little fox cub, his white ears flattened to his silver head.

"Damn it, Shippo! Can't you keep it down to a dull roar!"

Shippo leapt, and InuYasha caught the kitsune on his red-robed chest with an audible thud of impact. The hanyou scowled at the little fox, but Shippo just hugged him tighter. "InuYasha! I'm so glad to see you!"

The amber eyes softened for a moment, before the scowl reappeared. Never easy with emotions, InuYasha just shrugged. "Feh. Whatever."

Shippo giggled. InuYasha never changed.

Turning his little head, Shippo's green eyes widened as he caught sight of Sango, who hung back hesitantly at the doorway, only moving forward to get out of the way as Miroku stepped in behind her. He stared at the taijiya for a long moment, and his little mouth fell open in surprise as he caught a glimpse of something that gleamed silver-white at the crook of her neck and shoulder, half-hidden by the collar of her black armor.

Without hesitation, Shippo jumped from InuYasha's arms and onto Sango's shoulder. Extending his little paw, he pushed aside the black fabric and stared in fascination at the unmistakable mating mark that pulsed at the base of the slayer's throat.

"Sango-chan?" He blinked as everyone in the hut suddenly stared at the pair of them. Sango's cheeks flamed, and Shippo wrinkled his nose as he took a deep sniff.

"InuYasha?" He blurted out in surprise before a white-clawed hand clamped down on his furry little tail and pulled him off of the blushing taijiya.

"Damn it, Shippo!" Amber eyes blazed into green ones as the hanyou held the little kitsune up by the tail, the better able to glare at him.

"InuYasha!" Both Sango and Kagome's voices rang out at the same time, full of exasperation, and suddenly everyone relaxed as they all laughed, releasing the unspoken tension that had sprung up between them.

InuYasha just scowled and opened his claws. Shippo dropped with a yelp, but rolled to his feet quick as a flash.

'Dumb dog!'

Shards, InuYasha never changed!

Shippo stuck his tongue out at the hanyou, and InuYasha just crossed his arms over his chest and glared back. Shippo just wished he was bigger, so that he could bop that stupid hanyou over the head!

Shards, he was glad InuYasha was back!

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"So, old hag, what's for breakfast?" InuYasha finally quit glaring at Shippo and flicked his golden-amber eyes at the old miko, who just shook her head in wry amusement at the hanyou's obnoxious behavior.

Kagome glared.

How could that stupid boy come striding back in here, scuffle with Shippo, and then demand breakfast? He had the manners of a barbarian! He wasn't even acting like he had been gone for the last five months, making them all worried sick over what might be happening to him, and just look at him!

Kagome saw red. "InuYasha!"

InuYasha looked irritated. "What?"

Must she always recall that idiot to his senses?Stupid jerk! Kagome took a deep breath and shouted, "SIT!"

Nothing happened.

Kagome blinked. A look of pain flashed deep in the amber eyes even as the stupid hanyou scowled at her. Kaede straightened from beside the fire and spoke. "InuYasha, the kotodama nenju is gone. What has happened?"

"It's just gone, okay?" The hanyou became defensive, and he jerked when a small, calloused hand gently touched his arm. His reactive scowl eased a bit when he glanced down at the taijiya, whose brown eyes were lightened into cinnamon when she stared up at him, wordlessly offering him her support and comfort.

Kagome's brown eyes widened as she stared at the both of them, and realization suddenly dawned. Sango and InuYasha were...

Eyes unfocused, Kagome examined the sudden wealth of strange emotions that enveloped her mind. She felt a stab of sadness, at the loss of something precious, and also relieved, as if a burden had been lifted from her heart. Her heart ached, for a love that she had come to realize had been too drowned in old pain and twisted memories to ever been able to survive the doubts and fears that lay between them. She had loved InuYasha at one time, loved him with all the first flower of her innocent, young heart. But his betrayal in the woods, when he had called her Kikyo, had made her realize that she and the dead miko were too twined in the hanyou's memory to have ever been seperated.

She had, over time, come to understand that her tenderness for InuYasha could never be truly returned by the temperamental hanyou. She had also realized that her love had been an almost automatic reaction to the circumstances of their friendship. Not that it hurt any bit the less as she had realized it was never meant to be. She had mourned its loss, and her heart would always ache just the tiniest bit when she thought about her silver-haired hanyou.

But more than that, much more than that, was the fact that she cared about InuYasha. Cared about his well-being and his happiness. He was her friend, as Sango was her friend. When she thought about the solitary loneliness of both of them, and thought that maybe they just might be able to heal the pained longing that lurked in the back of their stubborn eyes, Kagome felt an overwhelming sense of joy bubbling up inside of her.

Her pure heart had ever been large enough to embrace the world.

Tears sprang to her eyes, and Kagome sniffled, wishing she had a stupid tissue right now. Why did she always seem to never have a handkerchief around when she needed it!

She blinked up at Sango, who was suddenly there, bowing her head as tears fell freely down her pale cheeks. Black tresses tumbled down over her back and shoulders, and the taijiya trembled as she said softly, her heart's pain in her words, "I am so sorry, Kagome. So very sorry."

'Sorry?'

Kagome blinked in surprise, her tears suddenly drying. Awkwardly leaning forward-dang, but her belly always seemed to be in the way these days-she put her arms around the taijiya and protested. "Onee-chan!"

Something broke inside Sango, and the taijiya clung to the little miko, sobbing in relief. The two young women clung to one another and cried together while the three males-kitsune, hanyou and houshi-looked on in consternation.

InuYasha gave Kagome and Sango a sour look. "All this fuss over nothing. Damn!"

Miroku shook his head at the irrepressible hanyou. "InuYasha, you will never change."

InuYasha just rolled his eyes-toward Kaede, who still stood over the cook-fire, dripping spoon in hand. The old priestess returned his scowl with a faint smile as the hanyou's belly rumbled-loudly.

Flattening his ears to his silver head, the hanyou gave the elderly miko a look of pleading only an inu could give. "Breakfast?"

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"So you are the one they call Naraku." The ookami youkai looked over the unprepossessing figure shrouded in the white cloak of a dead baboon with a sneer. Yellow eyes glinted his scorn as the wrinkled mask covering the hanyou's features nodded once in acknowledgment.

"I have that honor." Was that irony in the dark voice?

"Huh. You're not what I expected." Katashi smirked, folding his muscled arms across his grey-furred chest.

The white figure remained silent.

Katashi let out a loud bark of sudden laughter. "You have nothing to say to that, eh?"

The youkai around him shifted uneasily, re-gripping their weapons with sweating palms and licking their (suddenly) dry lips. They twitched uncomfortably under that baboon's cold-eyed stare. This seemingly innocuous hanyou had slaughtered over three-quarters of the northern tribe just over three years ago. Katashi, though brave, was reckless. He was taking their lives into his hands, and there HAD to be more to this monkey than seemed apparent at first glance.

The wolves told all, and their slinking posture, ears laid back and belly-crawling into hiding behind their ookami brothers wasn't an encouraging sign to the nervous northerners.

The baboon said nothing, and it was Katashi who finally growled with impatience and said gruffly, "You should be surprised by my offer, hanyou." The black-haired ookami's fangs flashed. "We SHOULD be enemies. I SHOULD be killing you now where you stand. You have the blood of my tribe on your claws, baboon, and I SHOULD be collecting that debt by taking yours."

Faint growls of agreement from the wolf pack behind Katashi made the eruptive leader clench his fists over his braced arms before turning around and snarling the uneasy clansmen silent. A few ookami muttered under their breath, but Katashi's dominance over the northern tribe had been settled by combat long before and none would dare stand up and challenge his decision now.

The mutters died, and a grey wolf whimpered plaintively at the tension and danger in the air.

Katashi's yellow eyes glinted menace before he whipped back around to address the silent figure cloaked in white fur, a faint mocking grin curving the lips that showed beneath the baboon's snout. Katashi braced himself so that he stood taller than the hanyou.

"I have never done what I SHOULD." He paused, awaiting the hanyou's reaction to that dramatic statement, and his anger glowed in his hot eyes when the baboon made no reply.

Finally, the ookami leader spat out, "I propose an alliance."

"Why?" The baboon asked mildly.

"Why?" Katashi snarled. "Because we have a common enemy-" He paused again and said the hated name with venomous rage, "KOGA. That foul wolf thinks he can cross me and get away with it. I'll pull his guts right out of his stomach and spit on his corpse. And then I'll claim that kaze (witch) as my own-"

The white baboon stiffened, and the bloody gaze suddenly glowed. "Kaze?"

Katashi scowled, the red streaks flashing across his yellow eyes. "Yes. That wind witch, Kagura."

"Kagura." The hanyou hissed the name.

"Yes. That (witch) dared to deny me. ME!" Katashi struggled to keep the fury he felt at that betrayal of his ookami superiority out of his voice, but his hands were fisted at his sides with impotent rage. Some of his men eyed each other uncomfortably, and a skinny wolf whined under its breath at the tension in the air. The other wolves huddled behind their wolf-brothers, ears flat and the whites of their eyes showing their discontent. They could sense the danger that came from the dark hanyou, even if their alpha leader refused to acknowledge it...

Katashi made a sharp gesture. "I've brought you a gift. A token of our-association." He pulled the glinting Shikon shards from inside his belt-pouch. Fuchsia light glittered balefully from the jagged gems he held out on his open palm.

"This should seal our bargain. I know you seek the Jewel shards, Naraku. I took these little beauties from Koga myself-"

"From Koga's grandfather, perhaps." White fangs glinted in a mocking smile. "That is old blood I smell on your Jewel fragments, ookami."

Katashi's fist closed over the cracked shards in his hand, his yellow eyes beginning to boil into crimson with the rage that welled up inside of him at the hanyou's mild retort. His snarl of anger turned into a sharp hiss of surprised pain as his curled fist jerked open, showing the bloodied wound where the sharp end of a malevolent Jewel shard had pierced the tough callouses on his palm. Blood welled out of the deep wound, and the Shikon fragment's fuchsia light became fierce and glinting as if it welcomed the ookami's blood and gathered power and strength from it.

With a suddenness that stunned the watching wolf-brothers, the dark hanyou swept the Shikon shards up from Katashi's opened palm and held them delicately between his own claws. The staring ookami gasped and shrank back as Katashi stared, dropped-jaw in shock at the monkey's speed. He snapped his mouth shut on a heated growl and grit his teeth hard against spitting angry words out at the presumptious hanyou, whose mobility proved just how dangerous he truly was.

Which was all for the better, in Katashi's opinion. With Naraku's help, he could destroy that bastard Koga and take the spiteful (witch) for his own. With that kaze witch as his mate, he could claim both the eastern and northern tribes as his own. With such a large clan, he would be unbeatable, and could turn his attentions to the more scattered tribes of the south and west. Never had there been one strong enough to unite the various wolf tribes under one claw, but with Naraku's help, his secret ambitions might come true! With the ookami united under his dominion, he would be unstoppable. He could become Taiyoukai in his own right, and then would the lands tremble-for the dark hanyou would be the first of his enemies to fall, and with the Jewel of Four Souls in his possession, he, Katashi, would be able to claim the whole of Japan!

The blood seeped from his eyes until the yellow shone unfettered once more. The baboon had ignored him, his attention riveted to the Jewel shards he held in his hand. Turning them this way and that, the stupid hanyou seemed caught up in their pulsating light.

Mesmerized.

How predictable. Like a moth caught by the flicker of firelight.

'Stupid monkey. Hanyou half-breed.'

That was exactly why a true youkai should never consider mixing his blood with a ningen's. It diluted the pure strength of a youkai and tainted the honor of his heritage and line...

Katashi suddenly grinned, feeling superior. Naraku was a worm not worthy of his notice. Actually, the ugly little monkey was only a HALF-worm. It had been pure luck that such a puny little bastard had taken out the northern wolf clan before, nothing else. But Naraku better beware...it was past time for the Fates to be gracing him, Katashi, with their favor, and then would the monkey pay for his crimes against his father and his ookami brothers.

Though, to be honest with himself, Katashi didn't really care. He should actually thank the white baboon for his aid. Without Naraku's murder of the northern tribe, Katashi would never have been able to seize control over his clan and his innate worthiness might never have been recognized for what it was: destiny.

It was with an almost negligent air that the northern leader said expansively, "Those Shikon shards are yours, hanyou. Our gift of appreciation for certain, uh, aid."

The worm finally spoke, though his attention was still affixed to the Jewel shards in his hand. "And what is that, Katashi of the North?"

"I want you to kill Koga." All of the northerner's anger and frustration burst out, and his eyes glittered a promise of bloody death in their crimson glower.

The dark hanyou's eyes finally left off their preoccupation with the Jewel fragments and pierced the angry ookami with their own bloody light. His voice was bland, however, as he said off-hand. "That is not my concern."

Katashi's fists clenched so tight that his sharp talons dug a tatoo of welts across his palms. Several of his grey wolves shied back, away from their fearsomely volatile leader. "What do you mean, hanyou half-breed?"

Naraku ignored the taunt, but his eyes glinted crimson behind the wrinkled mask of the baboon. "You will kill Koga."

"And you?" Katashi bit out.

"I?" Naraku's eyes flicked to the Jewel shards in his palm. "I will help you."

Katashi just snorted his disbelief.

"With these." Naraku's claws twisted the broken Shikon shards so that the weak light of the waning day glittered malevolently from them, making them blaze with a furiously fuchsia color.

Katashi's brow wrinkled in puzzlement.

"You are too quick, ookami, to throw these 'little beauties' away," Naraku scolded mildly, "when they are the key to granting you wish for vengeance on the eastern wolf."

"Huh?" Katashi could only stare as the baboon casually twisted his fingers so that the Shikon shards now seemed aimed like tiny arrow-heads at the grey-furred ookami's thighs. The monkey's mellow voice twisted in a cadence of mesmerizing words as he spelled out his plan.

"Would it not be pleasant if you, Katashi, defeated Koga with the very thing that always set him above you? The power of these Jewel shards is inherent. Take them. Use them. Kill the eastern dog with his own Jewel shards. Just think of the delightful possibilities such power would bring you..." The dark, velvety voice purred.

Katashi's only answer was a slowly dawning smile...


	59. Chapter FiftyEight: Silence

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.

WARNING: Some dark imagery and alluded lime. No one under 17, please! Word editing on ffnet.

Chapter Fifty-Eight (Silence)

Ginta was not in the best of moods. He stared sourly at the crooked path where Hakkaku had waved at him cheerfully, several days before, as he and every other ookami fortunate enough to accompany Lord Koga and his Lady off to battle had disappeared.

'Lucky mutts.'

While Hakkaku and the others got to go off after Katashi, HE had to be stuck here babysitting the wolf dens and those too weak or old to go off and fight. Koga had thought that he, Ginta, would appreciate being left behind as it was his father who had been so badly hurt by the northern wolves.

Like he could do anything for Hideki. He wasn't a healer, and he was sure damn certain he wasn't a nanny.

He scowled at the rocky verge where his clan-brothers, excited and bloodthirsty, had all left him. One of his furry companions whined and thumped his tail comfortingly against the dusty knoll on which they stood. Ginta wasn't in the mood to be comforted, though. Tightening his grip around the wooden shaft of his spear, he thought mutinously about all the exciting things everyone else always got to go and do...

"OW!"

Sniffling, he jerked his left hand from around the wooden haft of his spear and regarded the evil splinter embedded in his palm with a pitiful expression. A bead of scarlet blood-the color of Lady Kagura's eyes-trickled out and he slapped his palm to his mouth, sucking at it, only to drop his spear and dance around howling as his sharp teeth only sent the damn thing deeper.

"Ow-ow-ow-ow-OW!" He hollered to the uncaring heavens, which hung dark and heavy with thickening clouds, muffling his voluminous wail. His wolf-brothers stirred uneasily and whined uncertainly at him as he blubbered self-piteously.

Some of the other wolves-Koga had left most of the four-legged furballs behind to help Ginta guard the dens-had bound up the rocky knoll behind him, coming to investigate why he was making such noise. A grizzled ookami youkai popped his head out of his cave and scowled grimly when he saw where all the racket was coming from. That old fart Nobu had protested Ginta being left behind and in charge, questioning whether the young wolf-brother had enough claws to be trusted with that much responsibility.

'Responsibility, ha!'

Like guarding a measly pile of old rocks-and he WASN'T talking about the mountainous caverns of their home, either-was THAT much of a BIG DEAL. He glared back at the old wolf and sucked at his palm. A furball came and butted his heavy head against Ginta's calf, and the ookami turned his glare down-

And froze.

There, on the ground just beneath the wolf's rust-colored paws, was a worm.

And not just any worm...

Ginta stood frozen as he watched in bewildered horror as the long, slithery brown THING opened its jaws-jaws too big for its head, it was physically impossible but was happening right there before his stunned eyes, as were the rows and rows of sharp, needle-point teeth that accompanied that mouth, or the purple-tinged acid that dripped from its twin-split tongue-and suddenly the shriek burst forth out of his chest as the worm-snake lunged for a rusty-red paw.

The wolf jumped back as if shot by an arrow, which barely saved him from a torturous death. The rocky knoll was suddenly in chaos, as barking wolves focused in on the intruder, and Ginta scrambled around milling furry bodies, looking for his spear.

The worm-snake drew back and hissed as the wolves cleared a wide circle around it. With unbelievable speed, the worm-snake launched itself at a nearby wolf, and there was a startled yipe from its victim, who tried to bite the tiny creature off of him, to no avail. As acid burned, the wolf howled and collapsed, the worm-snake dropping back down to the pebbled ground and launching at another wolf's cream-furred neck.

Unable to find his discarded weapon, Ginta grabbed up the nearest rock and roared a challenge loud enough to wake the dead and even impress Koga. With lightening-fast reflexes, the worm-snake changed direction in mid-air and sped right at the young ookami's face. Ginta barely deflected the arrow of poison with an ineffectual swipe of his claws. The worm-snake lost its momentum with the abrupt change of air-current and fell to the ground, where Ginta promptly squished its head with his handy rock. The long, slender body and tail of the unnatural beast wiggled and contorted with disgusting motions before it stilled and blackened as if burned into ash.

Ginta fell back, chest heaving as he took in needed oxygen. The wolves around him milled uncertainly, whining softly.

'What WAS that?'

A soft whine caused Ginta to focus on the poor wolf who had been bitten by the foul worm. Some of his four-legged friends nosed the poor carcass and wuffed low in the back of their throats in sorrow. One of them raised his pointed nose in the air and took breath to utter the first howl of mourning-

Only to be cut off in mid-breath by something that had him yipping in pain.

Ginta snarled in sudden rage as he saw the tell-tale brown body of another worm-snake buried in the wolf's shoulder. A chestnut-brown wolf cried out and another yelped and bit furiously at something on his back. Ginta looked down just in time to see yet another of the worms, acidic jaws grinning evilly at him, launch itself from beneath a crevice and aim right for his unprotected leg.

Scrambling back, he shouted at the wolves to retreat. The disgusting, nasty little worms were suddenly everywhere. Grabbing up the nearest rocks, Ginta's eyes flashed blood red in fury as he snarled his wolves back away from the evil menace they had no defense from.

"BACK! TO THE CAVERNS!" He screamed at them, before smashing his rocks together as gaping, miniscule jaws launched at his face, purple-tinted acid dripping malignantly...

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"Feeding time." A dark voice purred with a dreamy smile curving across sensual lips as he stared at the swirling image of the carnage that was too come. His dark whisper swept over the empty-eyed girl who held the mirror, as did the deep, dark chuckle that accompanied it with delighted anticipation.

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Koga waited impatiently for the wolves he had sent scouting ahead to return. Camp had been called for the night, and he had his men stationed in strategic points around the small canyon. It wasn't much-just a small cleft between two craggy upthrusts of rock-run hills-but it blocked the damp, chilling wind that whistled down from the cloudy heights and provided a defensible base in case of attack.

He didn't put anything past that traitor, Katashi.

'Damn him.'

Muscles twitched across wide shoulders. Gods, he hated waiting! But he couldn't DO anything until his wolves came back in the chilly dawn's light with a report on where that walking dog-turd was. They wouldn't even have to get that close...wolves had a keen sense of smell, and that reeking, unwashed pile of northern fish-eaters could be sniffed out long before they were ever sighted.

His head jerked up as his sharp hearing picked up the sound of a loose bit of gravel clicking down the twisting trace of a path on the rocky slopes of the left-facing hill. The heavy clouds were just lightening in the east, heralding the dawn of the new day, but the shadows were still thick across the creek-crossed valley.

Koga relaxed his tensed muscles when he saw the first tail-waving wolf scrambling down the steep path and into the valley. He had ordered the scouting party to keep it quiet, emphasizing his order with a fierce scowl and hearty growl of promised retribution to any wolf who dared to break his edict. He watched ice-eyed as the first wolf was followed by a second, and a third, until the scouting party was over the lip of the hill and fish-tailing it down the path towards him.

His word was law, and the wolves kept their usual vocal return to a flurry of body shakes and eager tongue swipes. Koga knelt down to scratch a few ears and suffer their excitement before growling them to silence. He wuffed low in his throat at the lead wolf, a giant male who's creamy fur faded into a rich red-mahogany around his back and face. Yellow eyes alight, the wolf woofed back, his growls low and muffled. Koga nodded sharply, and the wolf wrinkled his lips back in a tooth-hidden grin, allowing a long pink tongue to loll out when Koga praised him with a special scratch across the wide shoulders.

Kagura was suddenly there, beside him, her red eyes glowing slightly as the silent question in her mind brushed across his. She could not understand the wolves as an ookami youkai could, but Koga's feral grin, a match for the wolf who stood beside him, spoke volumes.

"They are near." She said quietly.

"Over that cliff and two hills beyond." Koga nodded toward the eastern edge of rock.

"We will meet them?" Kagura raised a thin brow. Koga nodded again, more for the benefit of the watching wolf-brothers who had awakened and gathered around their leader and what word he would have of the impending battle.

Kagura's answering smile was as feral as any wolf's as she said simply, "Good."

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There was a gurgling cry from the darkness, and Ginta wept a curse as he felt one of his youkai brothers fall. Smashing his rocks together, he flattened a worm-snake into ash before taking aim at another. They ran, stumbling and falling, from the caverns, the foul snakes behind them and before them, trying desperately to break free of the very caverns that had always sheltered them.

The tiny, acid-biting worms were everywhere they turned, and as many as were squished by rocks or sliced by sharp claws were felt against furred hide or youkai skin, their tiny jaws bringing immediate, painful death.

Something grazed his shoulder, and Ginta howled in anger. An almost casual swipe of his left-handed rock smashed the disgusting worm into the craggy wall with a squishy splat. A furry body slid past him and growled when another worm-snake was spied slithering up the rock-face. Weak, wintry daylight peeked into the cave-mouth and the loud roar of his anger covered the ringing screams of rage and howls of pain as the ragged remains of the eastern wolf-tribe stumbled into the wide cave-mouth that opened onto the splashing waterfall that thundered its descent down the mountain-side.

Ginta's breath came in harsh heaves as he smashed the slithering worm-snake in front of him before it could launch itself for his throat. His shoulder burned where acid had touched it, and his right arm began to feel numb. He ignored it, and forced both of his sweaty palms to curl tightly around the rocks that had proved the only real defense against the nasty little bastards.

He barked an order at the lead wolf, whose furry red-brown body vanished through the waterfall and scrambled up the outer face of the rocky cliff. Standing guard, Ginta aimed his rocks and struck with deadly precision at any worms that came into his view. Wolf-brothers, both two-legged and four, scrambled for the pitiful promise of escape just behind him.

His ordered retreat to the caverns had been their downfall. They could not see the worms in the darker caves and the foul-mouthed attacks of the worm youkai had left his brothers screaming their agony to the dusty rocks behind them. Ginta wanted to drop to his knees in despair and desperation, but he kept a tight hold of his rocks and snarled his bitter rage at the wriggling, deadly worms that followed the wolf clan's flight from the dens.

A pained yelp had Ginta scrambling forward and he killed the worm as it killed the brown wolf caught beneath its jaws. The last of the youkai, bearing the sick and helpless on their young and stronger shoulders, crowded past him in a tangled knot. The terror that stared back out of wide eyes at the young, grey-haired ookami made his throat tighten in sorrow. Wolves surrounded them, sacrificing their own lives to protect their brothers, burdened and slowed by the infirm they carried on their backs. Ginta's attention jerked back toward the darkness, where faint movement hinted at the slithering death that followed them.

"GO!" He roared at his brothers, snarling the wolves away who would have stayed by his side. He was in charge of them, he had led them inside the dark caves to their death, and he would see them out and to the false sense of freedom that awaited them outside and up the mountain. The worms would eventually reach them, up there on the open mountain-top, and there would be no escape for any of them. But he meant to kill as many as he could before he, too, was brought down by needle-teethed jaws hungry for his death.

Ginta's roar of despairing rage bounced off the rocks as he leapt for the darkness that waited to engulf him.

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"KOGA!"

The sound echoed off of the creek-crossed canyon walls that surrounded him and his men as they tramped through it, and Koga's sharp ears could not pinpoint exactly where that yell came from. Turning his head sharply to the left and right, Koga suddenly had a startling thought from Kagura that had him throwing his head up-

And diving out of the way barely in time as the thickened dust-cloud above him resolved itself into Katashi's forceful thrust to the ground. Broken rocks and scattered dust swirled around the northern ookami, hiding his form but not cloaking the obnoxiously loud, mocking laugh that jeered Koga from the midst of the dust-cloud.

As the dust settled, Katashi's voice boomed out a taunt calculated to inflame the eastern wolf lord. "You're getting slow, Koga, in your old age!"

"Ookami dog!" Koga snarled back. "You could never keep up with me!" He lowered the shielding arm he had raised to keep the irritating dust from his eyes and the icy blue gaze narrowed as the dust dissipated and Katashi's brace-legged stance was revealed.

Yellow eyes glinted and the northern youkai's fangs appeared. "We'll just see if you can keep up with ME, easterner!"

With those words, Katashi leapt forward, and Koga froze for a second at the incredible speed with which the ookami came at him. The northern dog seemed to have springs built into his legs.

Koga dove to the right, growling in impatient anger at what he felt was a retreat, as the grey ookami's fist came flying out of nowhere to strike out at him. He dodged the first blow, and whipped under the second. Katashi smelled like fish and sweat and dirt and Koga's sensitive nose curled. 'Northern filth!'

That northern filth had touched one of his clan, had dared to lays hands on that old crack-tooth Hideki, and left the old healer for dead. Even worse, that northern filth had thought to touch his Kagura, had even dared to lay hands on her, not once, but TWICE. The anger built and smouldered inside of him, and Koga's right hand burned with the power of his rage. Clenching his claws into a power-filled fist, he let out a yell of snarling fury as he struck out at the ookami dog.

Katashi's sneering grin froze into a scream of outraged pain as Koga's fist connected with his left shoulder in a glancing blow. The northern ookami had fallen back from the attack to avoid it, and Koga's flaring white fist had only brushed across his shoulder. But that was enough to splinter the bone under the feathering impact, and the northern ookami howled with pain-filled fury at the blow that had Koga grinning like a fool.

"HA!"

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Hakkaku bounced on his toes, his muscles tensed and his mood anxious. He watched jealously as his wolf-brothers slowly fanned out, their weapons held at the ready, and blood-thirsty grins splitting their eager expressions for the battle to come.

He had a somewhat better view of the eastern slopes of the left-facing, craggy hill, and he could see the grey-colored bodies of the northerners creeping down it. A northern ookami stood up, waving a fist at the eastern warriors, and a lean grey wolf jumped to a crest of up-thrusting rock to howl eerily.

An answering growl of simmering rage from the waiting eastern tribe answered the grey wolf's challenging cry. There was a sudden moment of tense stillness, and then the world erupted into a roaring clamor of confrontation as the northern ookami sprang to life.

Snarls rent the air as red wolf and grey snapped and circled each other, grinning jaws seeking the soft throats of their enemies. Yelping howls raised by the wounded made a disharmonious accompaniment to the deeper shouts of their youkai brothers, as steel clanged against steel and claws tore and fangs bit. Rock-dust rose to engulf the embattling ookami, and Hakkaku strained to see what was happening from his upper position.

He cast a quick glance back at the Lady Kagura, whom he was guarding, and saw that her blood-red eyes seemed unfocused and distant. To the far left, he could sense Koga and Katashi baiting and circling each other, each seeking an opening to strike. He felt a stab of concern as the Lady Kagura, sitting almost relaxed on her flat stone of rock, tensed and shuddered. Her eyes were deep pools of crimson and seemed to glow faintly.

Hakkaku glanced back at the fighting clans, and flinched as he saw a northern youkai stab his sword through the heart of one of his brothers. Three eastern wolves, their color undeterminable from this distance, leapt at the northern warrior as he shouted his triumph. The pitch of his voice turned into surprised agony as serrated jaws latched onto his sword-arm, and the grey ookami fell beneath the snapping vengeance of the eastern wolves' wrath.

Hakkaku grinned, wishing he was out there with his brothers, feeling the blood burst from the hearts of his enemies, as his claws curled tightly around the haft of his spear. The blood began to seep into his eyes, and he growled unconsciously as the primal desires of a demon's nature swirled through him, until he almost trembling with the eagerness to join the fight below.

He jumped as a small sound behind him broke through the red haze of blood-anger, and he whirled around, his mouth falling open in surprise as the Lady Kagura, eyes still unfocused and unseeing, stiffened with a small hiss on her bloodless lips.

"Lady?" He asked tentatively, and shivered suddenly as a bone-chilling breeze ruffled the fur bands on his armor...

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The deep red eyes were unfocused as Kagura sat, protected somewhat by shielding rocks and the young ookami who guarded her, and allowed her senses to expand. In the back of her mind, she could feel the elation of her mate as he scored a hit on Katashi. For a moment, she saw through Koga's icy eyes as Katashi jumped back with incredible speed and agility.

She could feel her-Koga's-eyes widen as the northerner came back at him, surprising them both by leaping from rocky projection to boulder-strewn cliff of the craggy hills that overhung the narrow valley where they fought. At first, Kagura was bewildered by the northerner's seemingly stupid moves-

'Has that brazen fool lost his mind?'

but then she bit back a hiss as Katashi swung a heavy kick at a boulder, knocking it over so that it fell with a crash far to the valley below-and barely two feet from where Koga snarled in response.

Kagura called out a warning with her mental voice, and Koga sent her back a growling rejoinder. A shadow loomed from above, and Koga barely managed to dive out of the way before a veritable shower of rocks and cracked stone rained down on him as Katashi mocked him from a safe distance atop the hill he had just kicked apart with his powerful feet.

:DAMN him:

Kagura felt the harsh growl rumbling in Koga's throat as if it were her own.

'Too close.' She was getting too close. The deep anger that was rising in Koga's mind, making his eyes spark as blood-red as her own natural crimson, threatened to surround her and pull her strength in with his as his youkai nature dragged in all of his furious demonic energy to direct it solely at the eastern wolf who was his enemy.

Kagura forced herself away, realizing that Koga would not know if he sapped her strength with his and that there was something else tugging at her consciousness...something that nagged at her with faint familiarity, something that just felt WRONG...

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A faint, whispering thrum of sound crept under the dull roar of fighting ookami and youkai. Steel rang and teeth bit into flesh, the howls of the dying mixing with the snarls of the striving. Sweat dripped into curling palms, making weapons slick as warriors grimly held on. Dust rose to choke eyes and mouth, and the smell of blood, metallic and overwhelming, lay over everything else. A howling scream was cut off for all time, and another took up where the first left off.

Panting wolves, fur flecked with the blood of their enemies and their own, laid back their ears at the sudden, high-pitched frequency that had them pause and whine. Grey wolf and red-brown shook their heads as if they could get rid of that hideous noise, and their youkai brothers froze as their own sensitive ears caught the searing note.

It was a warning siren of doom, and the sudden rumble of thousands of tiny insects' wings beating the air supported it. A northern ookami, his sword raised up to deal a blow to the eastern youkai who crouched in the dirt in front of him, spear raised in defense, stopped in mid-motion, and his eyes widened, the blood seeping from them in surprise.

The eastern ookami turned his head to stare, and the youkai warrior paled, the blood of rage dissolving from his own eyes. He had seen those black-and-yellow bugs before...

And they were coming.

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The pain was unimaginable.

Koga stared down in numbed surprise as the claws withdrew from his stomach. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen, and then all of a sudden the pain hit him like a thunderbolt as the blood splashed out to cover his shuddering body.

Katashi laughed, taunting the eastern lord with how easy it had been to stab through his guts. Koga's fists clenched as the pain dragged him to his knees. The air thundered in his ears, and he felt as if each breath was a sword thrust through his lungs. He knew that several of his ribs were broken, and that one knee was dislocated under the jarring impact of Katashi's kicked rocks.

"You are a worthless dog, Koga!" Katashi spat at him, circling the wounded youkai with an almost careless show of ease. Koga refused to watch the posturing dog as Katashi ran around and around like an idiot, almost skipping, as he laughed like one sotted with wine.

The foul dog-turd had unbelievable speed, and after the first strike of Koga's fist against the dog's shoulder, Katashi had never allowed him close enough to inflict another. At first, the dirty little bastard had been content to kick the very rocks apart, sending them showering around Koga so that he had to spend all his time jumping out of the way of impending flattening. But finally the obnoxious jerk had tired of the game, and decided to bait Koga with the incredible speed the damn ookami wielded.

Katashi had used the power in his legs to dance in and out, striking with his claws or with his powerful feet until Koga crouched on his swollen knees in the dirt, his heart's blood seeping out with his entrails from Katashi's claws digging through his skin and tearing his stomach open.

And he could not strike back...the stinking little turd was too fast for even Koga's powerful fists.

Katashi circled him like a mad thing, chortling and deriding him, relishing the eastern wolf's pain and slow death. "I now have the power of YOUR Jewel shards, Koga, and I'm going to KILL you with them!"

Koga snarled, unable to speak for the furious rage that burned in him. That stinking dog was using the inherent power of the splintered Shikon no Tama as he, Koga, had. THAT was where the foul beast had gotten his speed and power, THAT was how he had beaten him, Koga, to the blood-splattered earth...

But he, Koga, was not going to allow that foul (filth)-eater from the north to deal the final blow unanswered. He was dying as he breathed, but he was going to take that stinking dog with him into Hell!

Katashi, dust rising from the trail of his passage, leapt up into the air, the power of the Shikon shards thrust into his legs granting him the force to jump high. His toothy grin was malicious as his furred legs dove back to the earth, intent on using his Jewel-enhanced power to bury Koga into the very ground.

Koga waited for death, the pain burning in him so that he could not move. His eyes glowed bloody, impotent rage boiling through him. His claws spasmed as he tried to curl them, to do anything to stop the arching fall of that stinking dog, but the pain was too strong, too THERE, too real. A damp wind was rising, chilling him with the knowledge that he could do nothing, and it made him clench his teeth in rage at himself.

And then, from one moment to the next, it seemed as if something was thrown over the pain, taking it away, and Koga was free to move.

"DIE, EASTERN DOG!"

Koga looked up...and smiled.

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Something pushed at her mind, and Kagura concentrated on finding the cause. Ignoring the dull roar of battle that screamed around her, even ignoring the blood-seething rage of her mate that roared across the back of her mind as he was thwarted by Katashi's Jewel-enhanced speed, she sought out that small kernel of knowledge-

And froze as realization swamped over her.

'Saimyousho!'

Their presence was a dark cloud of menace as they raced across the rock-ridden hills, intent on reaching the bloody scene of battle, and raining destruction on both parties. Their aim was simple...death for all ookami, and the capture of both Jewel shards and herself. She could sense the dark madness of Naraku's essence urging them on in the insects' appointed task, and she fled in terror from the slight brush of her awareness against the shadow of her dark creator's.

"No..." She moaned aloud, aware now that it had all been a trap, a mere plot of the dark hanyou to bring the ookami tribes of the north and east to ruin, and to capture the shards of the Shikon no Tama that Koga had had in his possession.

Rage bubbled up inside of her, rage at the dark deviousness of Naraku's twisted mind. He had had the Jewel fragments in his possession-he need not have sent Katashi back with them to try and kill Koga. It was but the kumo's evil nature and love of torture and ruin that had given him the notion to have the ookami clans fight, distracting them, as he sent his insects of Hell to destroy them utterly and collect what he thought of as his.

"No!" Kagura's eyes glowed crimson fire. She would not allow that foul filth to sacrifice her family on the altar of his dark lust for power and pain. She, Kagura of the Wind, would not allow it!

The grey clouds that hovered above shifted, and a chilling breeze, burdened with the damp ice of the upper reaches, blew across the silent battlefield, ruffling the hair of wolf and youkai, kissing the skin of the kneeling ookami lord who awaited his death with raging anger, and making him smile as it took his pain from him.

Hakkaku stepped back, calling her name nervously, but Kagura was too enwrapped in calling forth the very seed who had given birth to her essence. She had called them forth once before, and had been nearly dragged into their (essence) in sacrifice.

She did not fear death for herself. But for them, her family, her brothers, her clan, she would sacrifice everything.

Even life.

Rising unsteadily to her feet, Kagura raised her trembling arms to the uncaring heavens. Her eyes glowed with the blood of vengeance and devotion, and the long tangles of her black hair streamed down her small body as she called across the craggy hills.

"WIND!"

And was answered...

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The pain no longer overwhelmed and froze him into immobility, and Koga's rage narrowed on one goal.

Digging his own sharp claws through Katashi's tough hide and removing his still beating heart as the wolf screamed out his torment to the uncaring heavens...

Koga waited for the last moment, and dove out of the way as Katashi's feet burrowed deep into the ground, sinking the eastern youkai to the thighs in the very rock.

Katashi's scream of denial echoed across the hills, and Koga bared his fangs in a pitiless smile. Katashi had miscalculated, and he struggled to free himself from the embedded rock as Koga rose slowly to his feet. The blue of his icy eyes was gone, instead the bloody glow of promised death lit their depths. Koga stalked his prey, his claws extending to sharp daggers of intent, and Katashi paled as he realized Death neared him.

"WIND!"

Koga froze, and the crimson glitter of vengeance dissolved from his eyes as he realized just WHO had flung that single word across the dusty rocks and broken earth. The mating mark at the juncture of his neck and shoulder burned, and he sought suddenly, fiercely, for the mind-link to his mate.

"KAGURA!"

The cry was ripped from his throat as he felt Kagura's awareness torn from his. Where their souls had been linked through the marks of their mating, he could now only feel a maelstrom of whirling rage and destruction...the echo of the Winds' force as Kagura's awareness sunk into it, joining her soul to her nature.

"You're allowing your little (witch) to distract you, Koga!" Katashi snarled, having used Koga's inattention to free himself from the earth. His fanged grin was malicious, and he raised a fur-clad leg, intending to crack the very ground open and swallow the eastern lord whole.

Koga's growl was lost in the sudden roar of avenging wind that swirled across the narrow valley. Angry shouts turned into ones of fright as embattling ookami were suddenly picked up and flung aside. The distant drone of insect wings was drowned out as the Wind swamped through them, sending Hell's children cresting back like a tidal wave of darkness, cleansing the air of their malign presence.

And still the wind howled for Vengeance...

Katashi's face froze in a stunned look of horror as the Winds whirled around him like a tornado and sucked him up off of the stone as if he weighed nothing. The northern ookami screamed in agonized incredulity as the white winds tumbled him like a leaf, flinging him to the rocks below and then picking him back up to send him hurling across the valley, to smash him like a rag-doll under their roaring anger. With a final shove, they tossed the howling youkai away over the hills with almost casual contempt, and the northern lord's last scream was abruptly silenced as he disappeared over the crag-toothed hills.

Koga watched in disbelief, and he felt the rage rising up from the back of his mind to claim him, too. Kagura had called forth the Winds, and their uncaring destruction would suck her into them as they claimed her soul as payment. He could sense, barely, a thread of the kaze youkai's mind touching his, and he knew, suddenly, that she was willing to give herself to save them all.

"NO!" He shouted with a hoarse voice, bitter that she would

DARE to sacrifice herself as if she meant NOTHING.

'Damn you, you kaze (witch)!'

He felt a faint sense of answering laughter, as if Kagura's soul kissed across his, and then started to withdraw into the very whirl of raging wind.

:Ours! She...us...we...together...:

He heard the multiple whispers of the Wind, claiming the kaze youkai as their own, and he howled to the sky in rage and denial.

"NO!"

He would not let that damn (witch) go. She was HIS, damn it, and he would never allow her to leave him...

Gathering what strength he could, Koga leapt into the embrace of the winds that tore across the valley, knowing that SHE would not let him be flung to his death as Katashi had. Calling forth all the power within him, Koga snarled as the white flaring energies of his own demonic aura flared around him like a blazing star, channeled into a single demand.

"JOIN ME!"

The Wind stilled, and Koga used that single moment of time to twist them and bind them to him forever.

They were one.

And they would live.

Suddenly, the wind seemed trapped inside of him, overwhelming his mind, and he felt it sucking at his very soul, seeking to claim it as they would claim his mate's. But a barrier was thrown across him, and he could sense the irritation of Kagura's mind returning to him, and welcomed it with opened claws.

:Stupid wolf! You would sacrifice yourself to save me...:

:Damn witch! I only do as you would do...:

And then their individual awareness and bickering were lost, as they joined together, shielding each other from the Winds that swirled around them, harnessing their power under the shield of twined determination. Slowly, ever so slowly, the Winds receded beneath their combined strength, until the valley lay quiet once more.

Stilled into silence.


	60. Chapter FiftyNine: Washi

Disclaimer: Not mine.

WARNING: Some dark imagery and, worse, some of Jaken's lovely poetry. No one under 17, please!

Japanese Words

ookami - wolf

washi - eagle

kochou - butterfly

oushi - bull

ohitsuji - ram

Gaelic Words

Daoine Sidhe - those who are fey

TirnanOg - Faery Realms

Unseelie - dark fey

Chapter 59 (Washi)

It was that stupid Nobu who had come in and got him, snarling angrily at what he saw as Ginta's foolish wish to needlessly sacrifice himself to buy the rest of his tribe some semblance of time in getting away. Ginta's breath had come in racking sobs, his swinging rocks growing slower as each deadly worm launched for his throat. He nearly missed dripping death as his right arm shot out, squishing the foul demon against the rocky wall. The pain of impact shot up his numbed arm, and he howled at the ringing agony as his rock dropped from wooden fingers.

Another worm-snake was launching itself for his face and he barely batted it aside just in time. Turning in mid-air, the nasty little snake hissed at him and darted back, his jagged double-rows of teeth grinning torturous death at the grey-haired ookami youkai.

"Stupid whelp!"

Ginta blinked in shock as claws tore through the worm just inches from his face. Ginta fell to his knees, barely avoiding another snake, who had struck for his unprotected back. Nobu, his short, age-greyed black head twisting to the side as another demon sprang for his throat, snarled at Ginta to get the hell up, to come on you stupid pup!

Ginta's almost reflexively smashed the worm who had sailed past his face as Nobu's ichor-smeared talons ripped his own attacker to shreds. The pushy old fart had the gall to kick Ginta in the tail, roaring at him to move his carcass, and NOW!

Ginta scrambled to his feet, the blood beating in his ears. Dripping acid had burned his skin and furs in several places, and his right arm dragged at his side as if broken. Gritting his teeth, the ookami drew on the last shreds of his disappearing strength and followed the angry ookami out of the cavern, nearly sobbing as he felt the rush of thundering water flatten his hair to his head as he passed through the cascading waterfall.

Curling claws jerked at his shoulder, and Ginta followed the older wolf-brother up and out of the cavern, forcing his wooden legs to stagger up the rutted path. He dropped his worm-smeared rock to grab at the up-thrusting stones along the way and let out a howl as he felt something graze past his heel.

Turning with an agonized roar, he slashed desperately at the hissing worm-snake who had followed the two ookami out of the cavern. More worms were slipping out of the darkened cave-mouth and despair ate at Ginta's mind. There was no escape from them! They just kept coming and coming, and the wolf-brothers died in horrible pain from the never-ending stream of death that slithered in their wake.

Nobu hauled Ginta up the last bit of rocky cliff with a surprising show of force and snarled at him to get back to the others. Ginta could only heave a half-protest before Nobu pushed him away to swipe his blackened claws at the worm behind him.

Ginta fell back to the small knot of wolf-brothers who formed a last stand on the highest edge of their mountain home. It was the wolf-tribe's last, desperate attempt to protect those who were weaker by placing them in the center of their tight circle. Furred wolves howled at sight of him, their cries echoing off the rocks and ringing back both defiance and despair.

Ginta wiped the dripping sweat from his eyes, panting as hard as any of his four-legged brothers, and desperately tried to think of something, anything that might save them. His heart clenched as Nobu backed himself up beside him, the other youkai tightening their circle as they eyed the oncoming worm-snakes that were slipping up the rocky mountain-top from all sides.

With gnawing despair, Ginta calculated their death as more and more worm-snakes slithered their way up the rocky mountain. They seemed to be gathering in a wide circle so that the desperate wolf-brothers, rolling their eyes to every corner, could see death grinning at them from every angle.

'NO!'

Ginta let loose a howl of rage and sorrow that echoed off the uncaring rocks around him. "You damn WORMS!" He shouted. Gathering what strength he had left, his claws curled as the taunt muscles of his thighs bunched for a last leap. He was going to die, but by all that was holy, he was not going to die ALONE!

His snarling howl was taken up by his wolf-brothers and his heart swelled to see his clan, his tribe, his brothers, so ready to defy death and snarl in the face of certain doom. Baring his fangs, Ginta cracked the dagger-sharp claws of his left hand and prepared to meet death in the only honorable way-battle.

The light sandstone of the mountain was darkened with the shadows of rows and rows of slithering snakes, their hisses a whispering return to the ookami's fury.

A raucous scream pierced the cloud-covered sky but Ginta ignored it. A snarl of raging fury formed in his throat as an image of the Birds of Paradise, dread enemies of the eastern wolves, flashed across his reddened mind. Those filthy carrion-eaters WOULD take advantage of the wolves' desperate situation. A howl of fear welled up from behind him, and the rage rose up inside Ginta until he could see only blood for the scarlet vision that rose to fill his mind and glowing eyes.

Hiss of worm and caw of crow, none would take him cowering!

With a scream of pure fury, the young ookami leapt forward, screaming defiance as the rest of the knitted tribe took up his cry with a roar of screaming vengeance.

"DEATH!"

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There was a hiss of anger from the dark hanyou who faced her. Red eyes glittered, reflecting rage at the swirling surface of the disrupted image as the mirror's tiny white bearer became surprised by her Master's sudden reaction to what he saw.

A low sound, almost a growl, came from the angry hanyou. Curling black hair tumbled down the back of silken robes, and his claws twitched, as if wanting something to grasp. Was it rage at the mirror's sudden clouding as Kanna's concentration was disturbed? Was it fury at something he had seen? The white child of the Void turned the possibilities over in her mind, and was unaffected by her creator's anger as others might. She did not fear, she had nothing in her to know fear as others did.

She was the Void.

The hanyou's harsh whisper made her empty eyes widen though with its hard bite of thwarted malice.

"WASHI."

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The sky stared sullenly down on the castle. The hovering clouds seemed to wrap themselves over every point, obscuring outlines in a dull haze. The earlier snow, once so pristine and white in its blanket of wintry splendor, now lay in dirtied clumps from the trampling of many feet. The air pressure seemed to weigh in on the stirring camps that now littered the valley floors below the castle, and the dull cacophony of hundreds of men and youkai, talking and eating, sharpening blades on whet-stones or each other in practice, growling and snarling in anger or jest, set a jarring backdrop to the discordant scene.

'What a beautiful day!'

Jaken could almost whistle with how wonderful he was feeling right now. Fastidiously moving his best brown robes out of the way of impending muddying on the soiled path leading up from the tents that had sprung up as me Lord's allies answered the kochou's call, the little imp wanted to dance and jig with delighted glee.

Suyo was gone, and he, Jaken, First Advisor to me Lord SesshouMaru, was reinstated as nominal head of castle and staff, graced by the Taiyoukai himself with the responsibility of seeing to the welfare of ally and guest.

He had known that once the Taiyoukai had returned from his long absence from the Western Lands, Lord SesshouMaru would set everything to right, and reinstate his most humble and loyal (not to forget competent!) advisor back into a position worthy of his station, talent, and intellect. It was no longer HIS job to go chasing after that impudent scrap of a ningen brat, and for that Jaken gave hourly thanks to the kami.

Of course, the little brat had been all upset. She had even cried. Well, one tear. Jaken had almost felt bad about it, but then the stinking little turnip had had to go and nearly strangle him with a hug. He had nearly choked with the force of it, and wanted to gag after with the ningen stench that he just knew festooned his second best set of robes. Of course, even Rin's stench couldn't hide the faint smell of fish, and Jaken had had to put away his second best set and bring out his third.

He couldn't be smelling like a fish-wife when he went and greeted me Lord's guests. The thought was just too unworthy, not to mention disagreeable to one of his innate (and humbled) dignity!

He had just been to see Suyo and that gaggle of midwives and guards the spider youkai was taking to the village of the Goshinboku at SesshouMaru-sama's request. The Lord had been too busy, closeting himself with his generals and those allies too important to leave out of the decisions concerning the upcoming war with Naraku. Jaken had been all too delighted to take on the responsibility of seeing that pretentious spider off and out of his hair. With Suyo gone, Jaken did not have to worry about the threat of losing his post again to that four-armed-

Jaken jerked to a halt with a frown. There was a small crowd milling about the front gate, barring his way into the castle. Thumping his staff against the stones with ire, the small, yellow-eyed imp scowled.

'What now?'

He had been enjoying all the bustle. With so many youkai arriving, Jaken had been busy. Settling those too important to send back outside into the inner rooms of the castle had been a challenge. Finding room for all of their retainers and guards had been even more invigorating. Greeting each one, who had to bow to him, the First Advisor, as they would to the Taiyoukai, had been truly gratifying. Settling squabbles and smoothing feisty tempers was an art, one he knew he could play well. Most of these so-called allies were just jumped-up robber-barons unused to a civilized court, and their tempers roused far too easily. The castle staff were no help-those incompetents had no idea and did not care if some Lord's feathers got ruffled, or some General's sword got yanked. He, Jaken, had to do everything himself, and just look what happened when he was gone but only a few moments! Chaos! And at the front door!

The imp cleared his throat, expecting the small crowd-which seemed mostly composed of some kind of dark-feathered bird youkai and a few Ash-demons- to part for him. But no one turned around; his words could not be heard over the raucous voices that demanded to see the Lord.

'Blasted barbarians.'

He really should look into getting a herald, some volume-rising youkai or pet to follow him about and let others know of his arrival and his passage between them. He had envied Lord Ryota his little pet parrot from the far southwestern continent. Lord Ryota might be a stubborn, thick-headed bull youkai with a penchant for glaring red and purple kimonos with gold and silver trim, but he certainly had an idea there! Of course, everyone growled and complained when Lord Ryota's parrot started screeching out his name, but in Jaken's opinion, the other Lords and youkai were just put out with the idea because they hadn't thought of it first. Just because that screechy parrot made some youkai's delicate ears ring didn't mean that Lord Ryota didn't show some good sense in keeping his parrot by his side.

But sadly, he didn't have a green-feathered parrot with him. Not even a handy Ash-demon guard to at least bellow out his name. He needed to get through this milling crowd of infuriating imbeciles, and needed to do it now.

Must he do EVERYTHING?

Sighing with irritation, Jaken tightened his grip on his Staff of Skulls and prepared to swing it like a stick to gain the nearest bird-brain's attention. At least it would make the stupid youkai get out of his way...

'Wh-What?'

Jaken let out a small "eep" of surprise when the bird-man turned around at the last moment and grabbed his Staff of Skulls in one taloned hand. Easily raising both imp and staff up into the air as if they weighed nothing, Jaken suddenly found himself staring into a pair of hard amber eyes, some three feet off of the ground.

Kicking his little legs, Jaken squawked with outrage. The washi warrior only shook the green imp about as if he were a rag doll. Screeching, dignity forsaken at this atrocity on his very person, the First Advisor sputtered out a rain of abuse between heaving breaths.

"Set me down you...feathered fool! How...dare...you! Wait...until... me Lord...hears about...this!"

"Airdsgainne." The aggravating bird-man paused at the sound of that firm, feminine voice. Jaken nearly squealed with outrage when the obnoxious simpleton just let him go to fall three feet straight down to the hard stones in a huddled heap of wrinkled robes and sprawling imp.

Oh, the indignity of it all!

He missed what the woman said next to her birdish oaf-he was too busy staring at the large tear that now split his best brown robes to the knee. The hem was frayed and the back of his clothes was soaked in the damp, dirty snow he had fallen into. The utter indignity of it all chafed the First Advisor like nothing else. Gone was his good mood and his contentment with the world. Just wait until he ordered that bird roasted for dinner! Just wait until he had the bullying barbarian imprisoned for his callous disregard for impish eminence! Just wait-

All thoughts faded from the imp's mind as he blinked the dirt out of his eyes and finally caught sight of his rescuer. The youkai had bent down and extended one hand to help the advisor to his feet, and Jaken's yellow eyes nearly boggled out of his head as he stared at her in drop-jawed shock.

She was...beautiful. Wonderful. Amazing. Utterly captivating.

She was...perfect.

Mesmerized, he followed the graceful length of her arm, her golden-brown skin the perfect blend of honeyed tea set in pale morning sunlight. Long black tresses, braided tightly into hundreds of individual braids, hung behind sloping shoulders and a face that was both narrow and delicate, firmed with a strong character and softened by full, pouty lips almost mulberry wine in color. A somewhat hawkish nose-a strong nose, a nose of character and determination-was set between eyes that were so thickly lashed they looked almost sensuously sleepy as they stared down at him with mild concern. Delicately arched brows were raised in inquiry as amusement sparked through the piercing golden splendor of her eagle-eyed gaze.

"Phoenix." Jaken breathed, utterly entranced.

The beautiful mouth smiled wryly. "No, my little one. I am washi. An eagle youkai."

"Lady Lusaidh, this beggar is beneath your notice." The other washi youkai said arrogantly, fisting his arms over his armored chest and staring down at Jaken as if he were a worm he didn't find particularly appetizing.

'Beggar?' Jaken's toes curled in outrage, and he wanted to twist that condescending sneer off of that barbarian's ugly face. But then the Lady Lusaidh-what an enchantingly foreign name, so lyrical and melting in his mind-interrupted his thoughts as she spoke again, and took his little three-clawed hand into her own black-taloned fingers.

"Come, little one. Ignore my warrior. He is young. Forgive him, for my sake."

Jaken nodded dumbly, all speech departing him as his mind whirled with her very presence. She was so beautiful and regal...a queen, a tennyo, a goddess!

Helping him to his feet, the Lady stood up, and Jaken stared up at her with lovesick devotion. She was tall and lithe, her body muscled and curved into perfected womanhood. Brown and white eagle feathers adorned her hair and made a shortened skirt of her armor. She wore a sword at her side and carried a tall spear as if it were weightless.

She was Athene, Greek goddess of the hunt. She was...everything an imp could ever wish to desire. Gulping back a nervous twitter in his throat, Jaken attempted a deep and gracious bow, caught his bended knees in the damp folds of his dirtied robes, and fell snoot-first into the stones at the Lady's feet.

Muffled laughter made the poor imp cringe, but the Lady was too gracious to laugh at his bumbling. She only smiled as she once again helped him to his feet. "Your robes are wet." She said practically. "Let me carry you inside the Western Lord's castle, little one, where I am certain dry clothes can be found for you."

Jaken nodded dreamily. To be carried in that goddess's arms, where he could nestle closely to her lovely skin and lay his weary head on her soft bosom...'O! for heaven's embrace, the imply prince's heart did race...' He was creating beautiful poetry just staring at her! His lovely Angel...

Lusaidh nodded toward one of her warriors, and Jaken squawked when a pair of strong arms swept him up and over a shoulder like he was a sack of rice. Beak falling open in shocked confusion, he lost sight of his goddess as she led her warriors into the front gate of the castle, a small escort of SesshouMaru's ash-demon guards falling in behind. Jaken scowled at the grinning fools who saluted him.

What a lousy day it was turning out to be.

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SesshouMaru stared thoughtfully at the youkai assembled within the great hall. These were his allies and vassals, those who had come to the call of his blood to seek vengeance against the dark hanyou Naraku. Some had come quickly, raising their voices in anger at the betrayal of one of their own, while others had come grudgingly, owing his inu bloodline their compliance.

All would follow him, even unto death.

Raising the small white cup of sake to his mouth, the Taiyoukai wet his lips but did not drink. Memories whispered across his mind, and if he gripped the cup tighter as the sweet face of a young miko raising a similar cup to her rose-bud lips flickered across his mental vision, no one deigned to notice.

Few would notice anything this night. The day was given over to feasting, as the various lords and youkai partook of the Western Lord's hospitality. The last of his allies were arriving, and tomorrow SesshouMaru would hold war council with those he deemed worthy of leading his combined armies against Naraku. Tonight was for the pledge of victory and the salute of long life. Within the week, they would march.

To victory or to death.

"RYOTA. RYOTA."

SesshouMaru winced slightly as the raucous call of the bull Lord's parrot screeched across the cavernous hall. He wasn't the only one to flinch, and the more delicate-eared youkai scowled as the pompous oushi pushed past them, his green-plumed bird riding on one broad shoulder.

Lord Ryota was as garishly plumed as his pet parrot.

Bedecked in gold and silver, his kimono was of woven purple silk, red flowers and flying birds crossing its violently violet background. A gold obi could not cinch in a bulging waistline. The bull Lord's muscle had turned to fat over the peaceful years as he trusted the Taiyoukai more and more to keep his borders freed of marauding vermin. SesshouMaru hid his disgust well. He had played the game before, and he had the patience to wait. Eventually, the oushi youkai would make a mistake, and seek his protection. A neighbor would then become a vassal, and his borders would expand with no need for blood-letting.

His father, InuTaisho, would have looked askance at his son's long-term plan. The old Lord would have fought the bull youkai himself, demanded their allegiance under threat of total clan annihilation, and believed it the only way. But SesshouMaru was content to wait. Ryota would bring about his own downfall.

"My lord!" Ryota, more than half-drunk on rice wine, bowed clumsily to the Taiyoukai. SesshouMaru nodded once, his golden gaze cold, in acknowledgment of the oushi's obeisance. Thankfully, the bull youkai had spotted some sake and a pretty maid, and he abruptly departed for the far corner of the great hall. SesshouMaru did not know if he could have put up with any of the oushi's blustering pomposity. The inu within him growled across the back of his mind, letting him know that his tolerance and patience were thin tonight.

His eyes traveled across the youkai restlessly. He desired the privacy of his rooms. He was not one to hold court, as his grandfather had done. He preferred his rule of the Western Lands to that of his father, a solitary role. He did not need the empty flattery and petty conspiracies that courts allowed. But he knew his duty, and the festive mood of the feast would be disturbed if the Taiyoukai should depart it early.

He nodded absently as other youkai came to bow before him, waving aside false words and not truly concentrating on what they said to him. He wondered idly where Jaken was. The first advisor would have enjoyed this show of the inu Lord's strength, and had proved a good deterrent when some overblown youkai grew too onerous for the Taiyoukai's limited patience.

He studied the youkai who sat at table with him, those he held the most trust in. Old Seiryoku had been a general for InuTaisho, and though the old inu could no longer hold a sword for the cramping weakness in his hands, his knowledge of war and strategy was invaluable. It was Seiryoku's grandson, Susumu, who would lead half of SesshouMaru's army. Susumu came from a proud lineage, and had already proved his worth in times past.

Lord Berugu and Lord Ookawa spoke in low whispers, their eyes ever watchful for danger even as they relaxed over their sake. Lord Shitiro, lord of one of the seven Horse Clans, sat back, his eyes closed as he feigned sleep while listening to his fellow youkai. These, among others, had come at his call, and he trusted them above such lordlings as Ryota or Purotto of the lynx tribe. But the war he planned would be immense, and the Taiyoukai would not disdain aid from any quarter.

"Put me down, you bird-brained barbarian!"

SesshouMaru's eyes snapped to the front, where a contingent of washi youkai had just entered the far doors of the grand hall. He could see Jaken, slung over a broad shoulder like a sack, being handed down to the ground.

"Down you go, toadling." The eagle warrior chuckled as the green imp's eyes bulged with outrage.

"I am not a toad!" Jaken screeched, much to the amusement of the staring youkai.

SesshouMaru's eyes narrowed.

Jaken gave his disreputable robes a tug and snatched up his Two-Headed Staff when another washi extended it to him. Scowling, the little imp fairly scuttled to the front of the room, where he bowed low to the Taiyoukai.

"Forgive my tardiness, Master." Jaken was about to launch into an explanatory speech, but SesshouMaru's attention was already on the eagle youkai who had followed his servant's path. Faint memory stirred, and he coolly contemplated the female washi warrior as she bowed formally to the Taiyoukai.

Amber eyes, surrounded by lashes so thick it seemed like kohl had been used to enhance their almond shape, stared into his own without fear. "Forgive my tardiness as well, my lord." The woman spoke in a soft, confident voice. "I am Lusaidh, and I have come from the Scots highlands at your call, to answer a blood-debt long past of my clan to yours."

SesshouMaru's gaze took in the twenty warriors who stood behind their lady, their bearing proud and ready. The golden eagles of Scotland had come, and if their wing-strength was as true as his father had spoken, than he would not spurn their aid.

"You are welcomed, my lady." SesshouMaru bowed his head in silent respect. "Your arrival is auspicious. Please join me at my table, Lady Lusaidh, and allow your men to join mine in toasting our victory."

Lusaidh bowed again, accepting his offer. SesshouMaru waited a moment for his servant Jaken to come to senses and seat the eagle youkai, but the imp was too busy staring dreamy-eyed at the beautiful washi.

Annoyance tinged the Taiyoukai's voice as he roused his remiss servant. "Jaken."

The imp jerked awake, and flushed with embarrassment. "Your pardon, me Lord! Me lady, please come." Jaken almost tripped over his torn robes in his haste to draw a low-backed chair for the female youkai. Two bright spots appeared in his round cheeks, a particularly hideous effect on Jaken's dull green skin. His boushi was slightly askew, making the toadish imp appear ridiculous.

SesshouMaru waited, a slightly bored expression on his still features while Jaken fussed over the washi lady, bringing her rice wine and edible dainties from the sideboard. When the lady thanked the imp, he nearly fell over. SesshouMaru, bored with watching his servant act the fool, waved him back, and Jaken retreated to the shadowed wall, where he stood and gazed at the washi youkai with a singular fanaticism.

"You have flown far, my lady." SesshouMaru said. "I hope your journey was not wearying and proved uneventful."

Lusaidh sipped her wine delicately before replying, "As a matter of fact, my Lord, my journey was not uneventful. I was delayed some time by an unseen detour."

A single brow rose in inquiry. SesshouMaru felt a stir of interest. Had the washi, flying across the islands, seen something of Naraku's movements? It had been frustratingly difficult for the Taiyoukai to obtain news of the dark hanyou's plans. The baboon seemed to crouch in his poisoned castle like some spider, waiting for defenseless prey to come to him.

This prey was hardly defenseless, and SesshouMaru would seek that foul spawn to the ends of the earth, and crush the very life from him.

"My men and I came across a tribe of wolves, my Lord, who were surrounded and beset by some type of wyrm." Lusaidh's eagle-amber eyes seemed to darken for a moment in memory. "It must have been a nasty fight. Many wolves had died already, my Lord, and I could not leave those few for the wyrms to devour."

"You helped them?" General Seiryoku interrupted, his interest caught by the eagle-woman's words. SesshouMaru suddenly realized that the quiet conversations around him had died, and that the other lords and generals seated around his table were now turning their full attention upon the young leader of the golden eagles.

"We were unable to do more than rescue the remaining wolves from the top of their mountain." Lusaidh answered Seiryoku, her amber eyes troubled for a moment. "The wyrms were too many, and too tiny a foe for our talons. The wolves we rescued were wounded. Several died before we could deliver them to safety in their sister's village."

"Tiny, you say?" Lord Berugu, a ohitsuji youkai from the southern, coastal mountains, frowned.

"Yes, my lord." Lusaidh nodded. "The wyrms were no larger than the length of my hand." She stretched out her delicate fingers, the black claws thicker and slightly more curling than other youkai, though none the less sharp for that. "They were red-brown in color, and bit acid. They could shoot from the ground like an arrow, and were extremely maneuverable and quick in flight. Not so quick, though, that my warriors could not out-fly them." There was quiet pride in her voice, and SesshouMaru knew it was worthy, if estimates of the golden eagles' abilities in the air were true.

Berugu grunted. "I know those nasty worms, lady, though they are far from their home territories."

Lord Ookawa, who had been in close conversation with Berugu before, tapped a clawed finger against his sake cup. "I wonder, Berugu, if these worms were creatures of Naraku. You were just telling me that you had seen that meddling monkey on your borders in mid-summer."

Berugu pursed his lips. The horns that curled on either side of his head in almost a full spiral were pale against the darker shadow of his thick brown hair. "I can see why Naraku might be interested in those nasty worm-snakes-that ambitious half-breed seems to have an affinity for bugs and other such ilk-but why would he send them to attack some wolf-tribe in the east?"

SesshouMaru stilled. The east? The eastern wolves were led by Koga, a young whelp who, if he remembered correctly, had had some dealings with his brother InuYasha...

And Kagome.

The inu growled across the back of his mind, though his expression remained distant and unworried. His eyes glowed though, as he remembered that it was also that same wolf who had sent his four-legged vassals after a defenseless Rin in the forests of her village.

Crimson streaks seeped into his eyes, before SesshouMaru ruthlessly suppressed them as he realized just how intently the other youkai were looking at him. Golden calm returned to his still gaze, and he leaned, deliberately careless, back into his chair. The youkai lords relaxed around him, though Lusaidh's glance was sharp before she allowed Susumu, his general, to take her attention away with a question about the wolves she had rescued.

"We took them to the village of their oath-sister, a daughter of men. There was a remarkable amount of the Daoine Sidhe there."

"Deenie shee?" Susumu, curiousity sparked in his blue eyes, asked with interest.

SesshouMaru's golden eyes narrowed slightly, but the eagle youkai shrugged. "They of the TirnanOg. I know not what name you give them. This land is strange, and it seems as if the Unseelie holds more power than those of the Green Tree and the First Path. You are more familiar with the children of earth than we in Scotland." She motioned gracefully to where ningen soldiers had gathered around their daimyo at one side of the great hall. They were loyal to the Western Lands or to other youkai allies, and SesshouMaru did not eschew their battle-strength, though once he would have.

'The miko has changed me, more than I care to admit at this point.'

Growling the distracting thought away, the Taiyoukai focused on the eagle-woman, interrupting her with a query of his own. "You left the wolves in this onna's village?"

Lusaidh did not flinch from his penetrating gaze as many others would have. "Yes, my lord. There were healers there, strong healers, who could help the wounded wolves. It was a sacred place, and I, who have never seen one of the Undying Forest before, was impressed to see a God's Tree have taken root there."

God's Tree...

The white claws on his single hand tightened around the china cup he held in his palm at the realization.'Goshinboku.'

Lusaidh's eagles had rescued the wolves of Koga from an enemy possibly sent by Naraku, and had then placed them in the village of the Goshinboku.

The village of Kagome.

The crimson anger that bled his eyes startled the youkai around him. The inu seethed, and SesshouMaru's fangs appeared for just a moment before he wrestled the inu back, and assumed the chillingly familiar aura of cold distance.

The dark hanyou played a dangerous game. It was past time to see the vermin buried beneath his claws. For it was Naraku who kept the Taiyoukai from the mother of his forth-coming child. SesshouMaru knew well the venomous monkey's fondness for intricate plots and seemingly meaningless schemes. That dark demon had manipulated lives to his pleasure before, but it would be SesshouMaru's pleasure to end the baboon's scheming for all time.

The lords, even the lady washi, would not meet the Taiyoukai's eyes. For though his manner seemed cool and distant, his golden eyes shone with a faint mist of barely held red rage.

The rage of vengeance.


	61. Chapter Sixty: Contemplate

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, etc. Rumiko Takahashi does, and I only wish I had a small microcosm of her imagination...

A/N: A certain nymph is dedicated to my generous Fairia, a certain eagle to my friend Tausha, and certain feathers dedicated to my valiant Vyncent, who encouraged me in dark hours.

WARNING: Some language (which includes more of Jaken's bad poetry) and lime. (Words edited on ffnet)

Chapter Sixty (Contemplate)

They mocked her in hissing whispers. They echoed and sang madness to her in the dark depths of her cold and lonely mind.

:Mad...:

'No.'

:Mad...mad...mad...mad...mad...: They taunted her, laughed at her, whispered to her of darkness and death, anger and vengeance...

'NEVER.'

Never would she allow them to control her. She was above them. They were but empty whispers...whispers perhaps of the dead souls she stole to keep living...

"I am Kikyo." She spat at them, the bitterness almost overwhelming. "I am a PRIESTESS."

:Mad...mad...mad...mad...mad...:

If she were mad, it was not from dementia, but from anger. She burned with it.

She had burned FOR it...

It was her fault. That girl. That reincarnation. Kagome. How she loathed the very name of the pitiful little thief who had stolen her soul, usurped her powers, taken her love...

:You never loved him...: The voices whispered back, and then broke apart into sing-songing echoes that spread through her darkened mind, until she wanted to scream with their unending persistence.

:Never...never...never...loved...never...loved...never...never..:

That (witch) had done this to her, created this darkness within her pure soul. Kagome was the one who had turned her into this walking being of ash and bone, bound by unconsecrated earth and dark arts, forcing her to steal the souls of the dead to live just a little longer so that she might try and taste a semblance of humanity once more.

That girl had taken everything from her, stolen what was rightfully hers...life...love...possibility...

'I will kill her for what she did to me!'

:Mad...mad...mad...mad...:

She was not Naraku. The madness of his dark soul would never claim HER. She was Kikyo, a miko trained from birth. She had the power...the PURITY...to keep back the darkness!

The voices spinning in her head denied it. :Madness...you can't deny us...:

:Can't...:

:Madness...:

:Deny...:

:Madness...:

"NEVER!" The shriek came from her cold lips, and the white miko stood there, her icy composure broken under the endless onslaught. Her small fists were curled tight in rage, and her dark eyes burned with unholy anger. The power shimmered around her, the darkest fuchsia and melting red of anger, the purer energy of a priestess's calling drowned out in the rage and anger that fueled the dead miko's existence.

She shone with the malignant, fuchisia-wrapped power of the tainted Shikon no Tama, though she would deny it ever.

From the darkest shadows, a darker being watched, and his crimson eyes glowed with delighted contemplation as he watched the lost miko's breath come in sharp, short heaves and her cold body tremble with the raging madness that was barely contained within it...

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"What the hell is that?" InuYasha took a deep sniff, wrinkled his sensitive nose and looked down-right disgusted.

Koharu appeared affronted, even though Kaede was unperturbed by the hanyou's bad manners. "Ye shouldn't worry over it, InuYasha. This is not for ye, but for Kagome."

"What the hell is in it?" InuYasha wrinkled his nose again. "It smells like weeds."

Shippo giggled. The stuff really did smell awful.

Koharu snapped. "I made this recipe myself, hanyou. Kagome-chan has suffered badly with increasing nausea, and this stew of 'weeds' are the only things she can keep down!"

Miroku looked surprised at Koharu's tone. The usually mild girl was acting positively (witchy). Her moods seemed to be changing with lightening-fast frequency, and the houshi mentally cringed when he thought how frequent Koharu had been going from cheerful to weeping to anger to happy, as the burden of pregnancy toyed with her emotions.

"Er..." He started tentatively, but Koharu's eyes flashed at him, making him drop his indigo gaze to stare meekly down at his own bowl of fish and rice.

InuYasha wasn't as sensitive. Crossing his arms as he sat knees-out across the fire, he scowled. "There isn't one piece of meat in that mess!"

Kaede regarded the hanyou with a mild look while Koharu looked ready to upend the bowl of vegetable-soup over his head. "Is there a reason Kagome needs meat, InuYasha?"

The red-robed hanyou snorted. "Of course Kagome needs meat, Baba! She's carrying pups, isn't she?" He gave Koharu's soup a dark look. "That stuff wouldn't feed a mouse, let alone an inu."

Koharu looked thoughtful, and Miroku was amazed again at how quickly the girl changed her moods-almost as quickly as Kagome. "Lady Kaede, if InuYasha is correct-"

The hanyou just snorted.

"-than perhaps Kagome-chan needs protein. She is tired so much of the time, even though she eats all that she can keep down."

The old priestess nodded slowly, lost in thought. InuYasha just scowled at them both, before interrupting with his usual finesse, "Stupid onna. Hanyou pups aren't like ningen brats. We're carnivores." He grinned, showing his sharp canines.

"InuYasha," Kaede directed, "what else does Kagome need that we do not know of?"

InuYasha shrugged. "I don't know much. Just that she needs meat. And food. Lots of food. And water. Kagome smells as dried out as you are, Baba, and she ain't old. Pups don't grow strong on weeds and crackers!" He glared at the inoffensively tasteless wafers Koharu had placed alongside the bowl of soup set aside for Kagome's lunch.

'Pups?'

Both of Miroku's brows shot up in astonishment, and Koharu's deep brown eyes widened as she squeaked out her surprise vocally.

"Pups? Kagome is carrying pups?"

InuYasha scowled at them all, his black brows making a vee over amber eyes. "Of course she's carrying pups! She's as big as a house! Don't tell me you stupid idiots didn't know!"

Shippo, wrapped around a purring Kirara, yawned sleepily and piped up, "I knew, InuYasha!"

Miroku turned around to stare at the little kit, who just yawned again and buried his rust-colored head against Kirara's creamy fur. Three tails flicked at him-copper-sand and black-tipped foam.

"Kagome's having TWINS?" Koharu almost squealed with delight, her brown eyes shining in utter joy-filled happiness.

There was a gasp behind him, and Miroku's head whipped back the other way to stare at the stunned expressions on Kagome and Sango-who had returned from their slow, meandering walk to the water spring behind Kaede's hut-just in time to hear Koharu's outburst.

InuYasha was there in a flash, grabbing at a suddenly weak-kneed miko. Kagome's brown eyes were wide, and she let out a hoarse whisper. "Twins?" Her small hands fluttered wonderingly over her thickened waist, and she seemed at a loss for what to say. Miroku watched as Kaede, Koharu, and Sango hovered anxiously behind the silver-haired hanyou as he picked Kagome up like she weighed nothing and carefully laid her down on her futon. As soon as InuYasha had set the miko down, he was pushed aside so that the three onna could fuss over Kagome, who still looked as if she had been hit by a tree.

"Oh, Kagome!" Koharu's voice bubbled up happily. "You must be SO happy!"

Kagome still looked too stunned to be happy.

"Well, this certainly explains some things." Was Kaede's dry comment.

"Imouta, do you need anything?" Sango leaned over the young miko, concern in her dark eyes.

InuYasha rolled his amber eyes at Miroku, whose sentiment matched the hanyou's explicitly. By tacit agreement, they beat a hasty retreat out of the hut.

"C'mon, monk." InuYasha growled. "Let's go hunt up some damn meat."

Miroku couldn't have agreed more!

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"What's that?"

"Meat."

"I know it's meat, you dolt. I meant, what TYPE of meat."

The hanyou let out an exasperated sigh, and then said heavily, as if he were speaking to one simple-minded, "It's fish."

"Well, duh!"

InuYasha just glared at the black-haired miko who could get him riled quicker than anyone he knew.

Well, almost anyone...

Sango leaned over Kagome's shoulder and frowned. "It's liver."

"Ew." Kagome made a face. "Fish guts?"

"It's good for you." InuYasha growled. "You need to eat it."

"I'm not going to eat THAT." Some of the old fire was in Kagome's eyes, and the older priestess saw it with some pleasure. Since the hanyou's return the day before, Kagome had seemed more alive. It was almost as if the two of them were like siblings, needing to squabble over every little thing. Even Sango and Miroku, who could usually calm the stubborn pair, could not seem to contain them. But Sango seemed to have opened up more, and she was as quick to snap back at InuYasha as Kagome had ever been.

"Yes. You. Are." InuYasha enunciated each word while gritting his teeth.

"She doesn't have to eat it if she doesn't want to." Sango replied, staring at the pushy silver-haired hanyou who was her mate.

InuYasha glared at the taijiya, before turning his glare back to her pregnant friend. "It's good for you."

Kagome made a face. "It stinks."

Sango frowned even more. "It's raw."

"Who cares if it's raw?" InuYasha growled. "It's good for the pups, and you need to eat it." He shoved the bowl full of squishy fish back at the girl, but Sango intercepted it.

"No. She. Doesn't." The taijiya snapped, taking the bowl out of InuYasha's claws.

"Yes. She. Does." InuYasha snatched it back.

Sango growled.

Kaede watched them all with a placidly amused air, while Kagome suddenly seemed troubled by the tension between the hanyou and demon slayer. The miko, ever sensitive to the moods of her friends, put up a pacifying hand. "Sango...InuYasha..."

"When you carry my pups, wench, I'm gonna make you eat this crap, too." InuYasha glared at Sango, who suddenly flushed bright crimson, and dropped her eyes.

InuYasha grinned his triumph, and now it was Kagome's turn to look like she was going to murder the obnoxious hanyou for embarrassing her best friend.

It was time for her to intervene.

Kaede stood up, and all three pairs of eyes turned her way. Kaede calmly took the bowl from InuYasha and dumped the contents into the steaming pot set to boil over the crackling fire. "I thank ye, InuYasha, for the getting of it, and he is right, Kagome. Ye need the protein, and fresh liver contains the most nutrients for the pups ye carry. But ye need not eat it raw. I will boil it for ye, and when Sango's time comes, I will do the same."

Twin blushes flared across the girls' cheeks. InuYasha crossed his arms over his broad chest, and flashed his fangs in a superior smile. He loved it when he was proven right.

Kaede's brow arched.

Amber eyes blinked, and the toothy grin disappeared as two pairs of brown eyes gave thoughtful contemplation on how best to murder the obnoxious hanyou-quickly.

Oops.

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A slight smile curved the sensuous mouth of the dark hanyou as he contemplated the woman kneeling in front of him. Red eyes thoughtful, he stared at her, waiting for the cold miko to give some hint or sign of impatience, as a lesser creature might have. But this dark beauty had the patience of the next world, eternity, to surround herself with, and it was finally he who broke the empty silence between them, his velvet voice slightly edged with a mockery of polite inquiry.

"What is it you wish, my Kikyo?"

The miko raised her head slightly, so that her enigmatic eyes could look into his. There was the familiar withdrawal of a trained Shrine maiden there, and an icy contempt that made him want to curl his claws around her delicate white throat and choke the un-life from her just to gain a reaction from the dead (witch)...

"Why have you not killed the girl Kagome?" The miko answered his question with one of her own.

Naraku smiled faintly and leaned back against his silken cushions, pulling the white furs closer around him with a lazy air. "What, you still worry yourself with that child?"

The cold eyes were unfathomable, showing no emotion in their dark, shadowed depths. "You are a fool, hanyou."

The red eyes glowed a moment with anger over the miko's insult, but the heat cooled into thoughtful consideration as he regarded the dead miko before him.

"The girl Kagome is dangerous. She could kill you, Naraku." Kikyo said sharply, though her voice was soft.

'Lyrical...'

Naraku dismissed the threat with a negligent wave of his hand. "Kagome can no longer use her sacred powers. She is no threat to me now."

"You don't know what that girl is capable of." Kikyo hissed, warning lacing her tone.

The dark lord stared at the little miko with faint amusement, his red eyes as unreadable as the miko who faced him. "Perhaps I do."

There was a faint flush on the white cheeks of the dead priestess, and Naraku reveled in what it revealed to him. Kikyo despised the young girl whom some called her reincarnation.

Dark eyes dropped beneath the glowing red gaze and Naraku's mouth curved in a sardonic smile when the faintest hiss of a whisper reached him. The emotions contained in that fervent demand revealed far more than the cold priestess would ever admit to.

"I want her death."

"And I want you." Naraku said with almost a purr, loving the game of cat and mouse. The priestess's head shot up, and her mouth curled in derision. Naraku's smile startled her for a moment, it was not the reaction she had been expecting, and Naraku delighted in keeping those around him off-balance. "But we cannot always have what we want, can we, my love?"

Kikyo's lips thinned into a hard white line as his dark laughter mocked her demand.

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"Imouta?"

Kagome stirred under Sango's soft inquiry. Blinking tiredly, she dragged a weary hand across her eyes. She always seemed to be sleeping these days, but sleeping was better than just lying there, wide awake and yet too weary to move. The betrayal of her body's exhaustion made her grumpy and restless. She'd give anything to just MOVE.

The concern in Sango's brown eyes made Kagome give her a weak attempt at a smile. "Sorry, onee-chan. I'm just tired."

Sango nodded in sympathy. Placing the tray beside the young miko, the taijiya curled up on her side so that she could easily reach across Kagome's widened stomach and tuck a napkin around her.

Kagome looked at her bib with a wry smile. "I feel like a baby."

Sango touched the pale cheek, love and understanding shining in her honey-touched eyes. It was almost amazing how expressive the taijiya's eyes had become. Kagome would have never believed it if she hadn't seen it for herself.

"You are so beautiful, Kagome. Even now, when most women look burdened, you seem to glow."

Kagome looked at Sango askance. "You're kidding, right?"

"No, imouta." Sango's fingers combed an inky tendril off of the white forehead. The moment was broken, though, when they heard a loud bellow outside. Sango shot to her feet with a quick, lithe movement that Kagome envied. Kagome struggled to sit up even as Shippo came bursting through the door.

"Okaa-san!" The little kitsune leapt for Kagome's arms, which came up automatically to encircle the little cub.

"What is it, Shippo?" Sango demanded, her soft voice hard as she laid hand to her katana, ever ready at her side.

"WOLVES, Sango!" Shippo trembled more from excitement than fear. "InuYasha just caught wind of 'em, and went chasing off with Miroku to go find out where they are! He said to stay here, and protect okaa-san!"

'Wolves?' Kagome blinked.

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Ginta was delirious. He fought vague half-wisps of dreams and nightmares, saw strange visions in his feverish brain, and wondered if he was losing his mind...

Phantom eagles flew through his dreams, their raucous calls both frightfully challenging and reassuringly close. Why he should feel both relief and gratitude for BIRDS was beyond him! All his life, he had hated birds. Loathed them.

The Birds of Paradise, ancient enemies of the eastern wolf-tribe, screeched through his hazy mind, and Ginta flinched. Pain, numbed by familiarity, tingled along his limbs, and he wished fervently for Hideki's numbing juice. That nasty brew was so foul it made an ookami's eyes water with the stench of it, but it would have at least let him pass out, beyond pain or dreams...

So many dead. So many lost. What would he say to Koga, when he saw him? IF he ever saw him? He suddenly wished that Koga was there, reassuring him with his ear-wincing bellows and bluntly rough words.

Kami! He'd even settle for Hakkaku at this moment!

"Ginta?"

Who was that? It wasn't Hakkaku. It was feminine and soft. Somehow familiar, but nothing he could lay claw on. Could it be his Lady? His head felt dizzy, and he fancied the wind circling around inside his pounding head like a tiny whirlwind.

"Ginta? It's me, Kagome."

Kagome?

Ginta's gummy eyes popped open in surprise, and he groaned as his pupils dilated in the lamp-light held just above him. Promptly shutting his eyes, the grey-haired wolf youkai muttered under his breath.

"Ginta, you're safe now." Kagome was saying softly, and patting his shoulder. That was nice of her. Kagome had always been a nice girl. Too bad Koga had never been able to keep her long enough to make her his mate. But then again, if Koga HAD mated Kagome, then Lady Kagura would never have come to the caverns and saved him. And Lady Kagura understood wolves like Kagome, sweet as she was, never could...

"Ginta, you're gonna be okay, okay?"

His mind was playing tricks on him. Was Kagome repeating herself, or was he just hearing her words twice? Ginta's mind wandered, and he was just happy that he was safe and okay...it was a good thing he had told the eagles to take them to his sister's village...Kagome would help them...heal them...

Darkness finally claimed him, and the exhausted ookami slipped away into unconsciousness.

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Lady Kaede closed her single eye tiredly. She suddenly felt her long years pressing down on her, and wished fervently for the energy of youth. Age had crept up on her, and while she had reconciled herself to it and made her peace with the passing years, so that she could take the tossed insults of InuYasha with a wry amusement and no offense, she still didn't like it when her age caught up with her.

There was so much to do, so many things to attend to. She didn't need to be here, leaning against the wall. She should get up, refill the water cask, and then take it around to those patients who might be awake and thirsty. But she felt numb and wooden, and she could not seem to gather the strength to straighten up.

Koharu and Sango had been a great help, caring for the wounded ookami and their furry brothers. InuYasha, who had smelled their distinctive scent across the village, had come running back from investigating, bellowing that he needed Baba-sama, and quick. Kaede smiled drily in memory. That hanyou was a brat, but a likeable one for all that.

Few of the ookami youkai had been awake or even coherent. An older ookami, who told her his name was Nobu, had growled out that they had been attacked by acid-spitting worms, and from the numerous wounds, and the few who survived even after being brought to the village by passing eagle youkai who had not tarried once they dropped their cargo, wary of ningens, it had been a rather nasty engagement.

Koharu had departed some time ago, the dark circles under her eyes and drooping shoulders signs of exhaustion even the enthusiastic girl could not ignore. Sango had stayed longer, until InuYasha had shown up and demanded she stop for the night. The hanyou was very protective of the taijiya, Kaede thought distractedly.

Sighing, the old woman lifted herself up from the wall and bent down to pick up the wooden cask. Moving slowly, she stepped across the futon-littered floor of what was normally the breeding shed, and stepped outside into the night.

The air was bracing outside, and while it cleared the fog from her mind, Kaede still eyed the lowering clouds with foreboding. Already the village had experienced two seperate snowfalls. Although the drifting flakes had not stayed on the ground to freeze, it was only a matter of time. Normally the winter months were cold, but dry. These storms were being pulled in from the mainland, and the old priestess's ankle throbbed painfully as she filled the empty cask from the water barrel that stood just outside the impromptu hospital.

She should be overseeing the villagers, helping them to prepare for the coming winter. It would be a hard one. The bamboo mats that covered the doorways to the huts were too thin a shield from wintry blasts-she should see about having the carpenter make stout shutters to place over door and window. Firewood should be cut and stocked up, much more than had been already. The men had been hunting and fishing, but they should double their efforts. The distracted miko wondered if there was enough rice stored in the granary to last a hard winter. Rice was a staple they could not do without...

And speaking of doing without, she must replenish her herbal supplies. They had grown dangerously low of late, between treating wounded youkai and the seemingly continuous round of fevers and chills that claimed the villagers with the unseasonable weather.

And still there was the concerns of Kagome, and the young girl's increasing pregnancy. Kaede had too little knowledge concerning the bearing of youkai young, and too much in regards to ningen birth. With the revelation that Kagome bore more than one babe in her womb, Kaede felt overwhelmed. In a normal pregnancy, the old priestess oculd have used her sacred powers to monitor the child, and would have known immediately. She suddenly felt inadequate to the tasks laid before her, and she silently prayed.

Kaede felt the weight of her responsibilities on her tired shoulders, and she leaned against the water barrel for a moment, her worn face tired as the feelings grew overwhelming. But she had ever been one who could push her worries away and take up where she had left off, trusting those spirits above her to care for what she could not, and not burden her with more than she could bear. They had ever comforted her in dark hours of doubt, and her trust in them was explicit. They had never betrayed her, and she trusted them now.

She would leave it in the hands of the kami...

Something caught her attention. From the corner of her eye, she saw a softly glowing globe of golden light. The old priestess watched in wonder as the tiny butterfly, it's wings almost transparent, seemed to hover just above her, bathing her face in a soft nimbus of warm candle-light. The tiny creature's delicate wings fluttered, and the old miko could feel a faint sense of reassurance before the kochou darted away.

Smiling softly, for now and for memory, for the kami had always comforted her when the darkness seemed closest, Kaede bowed her aged head and made a sign of reverence and respect as she whispered in a low, time-roughened voice a prayer of thanks and gratitude for a lightened spirit as the kochou danced away in the dark night on sparkling wings.

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Miroku felt almost drowsy as he leaned back against a conveniently placed rock in the heated warmth of the hot spring. It was located a convenient distance from the village that few ventured there after dark, but not so far that he would regret the chilly walk home through the leaf-stripped trees.

It was unusual for him to be soaking this early in the morning. The sun-if there was a sun brave enough to peek through the sullen grey clouds that seemed to cover the horizon all the time now-would rise in a hour or so, and he knew the villagers would be stirring soon to start the new day.

It had been a long night. He had taken up vigil over the wounded ookami who lay on pallets in the breeding shed at midnight, relieving Kaede so that the old miko could claim some sleep. While he was not the healer that the old priestess was, he had some small knowledge and knew when he should summon another who knew more than he. But, thankfully, nothing untoward had occurred, and he had spent the hours merely tending the small needs of those unable to tend themselves.

Still, wolves were a grumbly, restless lot, and Miroku had been relieved when Koharu had come to nurse the wolves. He had spent but a moment alone with her, holding her close in a strong embrace. He loved the feel of her against him, and knew he was torturing himself needlessly by holding her so tightly. His body had responded to her warmth and returning affection, before she had disengaged with a small pat on his hand and moved briskly back inside at the call of a grumpy old ookami demanding water.

With a sigh, Miroku had turned his steps toward the hot springs. He had been spending quite a few hours there, and if he eased his body's frustrations in the silent emptiness of the burbling spring, there was no one to comment.

Feeling replete, the houshi sunk further beneath the swirling surface and closed his indigo eyes as he allowed his tensed muscles to relax into the heated embrace of the warm water. The touch of it along his tired muscles was almost like the caress of a woman's soft hands, and his mind followed that thought in dreamy contemplation until he came awake with a groan as he realized his body had reacted to his pleasant reflections.

Most springs were dedicated to meditation and prayer, but he always seemed to be unable to focus his mind properly when it came to the fairer sex-

He jerked upright in the water, deeply blue eyes widening.

'Who?'

She was a vision. An incredible vision. She could not be real, she was too delicate to be of this earth. It seemed as if she might be made of steam and mist and fantasies that whispered across his conscious.

He rubbed his bead-wrapped hand over his eyes, trying to dispel the vision. But she did not disappear, and the virile monk's mouth curved in a slight smile of happy realization that she was NOT a mere figment of his wandering imagination...

The woman was so delicate, her pearlescent skin so transparent, she seemed as if the very mist had spawned her. She was of an average height, but the length of her slim legs and the narrowness of her waist and hips made her seem smaller. Her face was wide and heart-shaped, her lips slightly pouty under high cheekbones and angled brows. Her hair seemed to flow around her, like the steaming mist that enveloped them both. It was a silvered blue-green in color, and the cat-shaped eyes that stared back at him were a deeper shade of silvered green.

She seemed poised on the edge of flight, but there was a flicker of curiousity in her heavy-lidded eyes, and Miroku's smile widened with delight as he realized that the vision was bare of clothing or concealment. His eyes darkened into indigo, caressing the delicate curves revealed to him as he felt his body react strongly to the vision's presence.

The woman stood frozen, tense, as if afraid of him. But she should not fear him, he was only a mere houshi, an appreciative houshi to be sure, but an easy man of gentle persuasion. Bringing all of his considerable charm to bear, Miroku made a graceful bow in the tennyo's direction and said softly, "I welcome you, my lady."

Sea-green eyes contemplated him behind thick lashes, and Miroku kept his smile pleasant and innocent. Did the vision know how tempting she was, with those sultry eyes and pouting lips?

"You come here often." The woman's voice was soft, like water flowing over his senses. "I have watched you."

"Have you?" Miroku asked, not at all discomfited by the woman's words. He eased away from his rocky perch and stepped forward slowly, allowing the water to kiss his skin in gentle waves at his movement. The beautiful woman seemed poised as if for flight, and he did not want to scare her away.

Damn, but it had been so long...

The woman studied him, her eyes touching across the wide expanse of his strong shoulders and the innocently deceptive smile that subtly encouraged her to remain with him. He was about to utter a sincere plea for her to come and join him when she surprised him by stepping forward and sliding easily into the water. His disappointment at having her enticing curves thus hidden was disintegrated when she moved closer to him, so that their breaths mingled. Extending a fine-boned hand, she touched the hard muscles of his chest with a faint caress, as fluid and feathering as the water that surrounded them. He looked down into her compelling eyes and whispered, "Who are you?"

"Niaya." She whispered, coming closer so that her body touched his. Miroku held his breath, overcome with the sensations of heat that surrounded him. Her voice was enticing, her glance seductive. He wanted to kiss her, to feel her lips melt under his own, and gave in to the compulsion. Leaning forward, his deep blue eyes persuasive, he softly touched his mouth to hers, trying to keep the motion light so she would not be frightened away.

He stiffened slightly as he felt her hands sliding over his shoulders to pull him closer. Her mouth opened and the kiss she returned to him was fierce and needing. He felt, suddenly, that seducer had become seduced, and where another man might have pulled back in surprise at the woman's boldness, Miroku just chuckled in delighted anticipation...

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Miroku walked through the woods, a contented smile tugging at his mouth. Relaxed and feeling as if all was well in the world, the houshi strolled unhurriedly back toward the village. The rings of his staff tinkled merrily as he contemplated the mist-filled memories of a delightful morning spent at the hot springs.

Delicate Niaya had proven to be quite bold, and he had been content to let her have her way with him. What was a helpless man to do, held in the thrall of a beautiful youkai maiden? The water youkai's appetites had been insatiable, her knowledge surprising, her touch inspiring. She had finally left him with great reluctance and a whispered promise to return sometime, if she were to be there and he alone.

It had left him feeling used and discarded, and he did not mind in the least. With a cheerful smile, he contemplated being "used" often in the hopefully near future. A slight part of him felt a twinge of guilt when he thought of Koharu, happily unaware of his before-dawn tryst with a beautiful tennyo, but then he eased himself with the thought that the girl had already told him that she knew he was not one to ever be loyal to only one woman. There were so many beautiful women in the world, and he was helpless to avoid them. It was not in his nature, and his smile turned tender as he thought of the mother of his forthcoming child. Koharu was a truly giving woman, and understood him completely. She would be grateful that he would not burden her with his healthy appetite...

"Miroku, you hentai!"

The monk glanced up to the trees in surprise, raising a brow as the irate hanyou jumped down from the sturdy limb he had been crouched on. InuYasha gave the houshi a sharp look out of narrowed amber eyes while Miroku tried to appear innocently curious.

"Have you been looking for me, InuYasha?" He asked fairly mildly, given the circumstances.

InuYasha scowled. "Damn it, Miroku, you are-" The hanyou paused in mid-sentence, his sensitive nose twitching. Miroku could feel a flush creeping up his face, he had forgotten how sensitive inu youkai noses could be.

But InuYasha was not interested in what the houshi had been up to. He had caught a whiff of something else, and white claws grasped the hilt of his Tetsusaiga as a low growl came out of the red-robed hanyou.

Miroku tensed, his hand tightening on the wooden haft of his staff. His blue eyes scanned the silent forest around them. "What is it, InuYasha? What do you sense?"

"Youkai." InuYasha spat out. "And quite a few of them. C'mon, monk." The hanyou bound up off of his feet, leaving the monk to follow as quickly as he could, hot memories forgotten as the possibility of danger to the village swept them away under a cool determination to defend his home and his hearth.

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"Jaken-san!"

Jaken froze upon hearing that voice. Raising his yellow eyes to the heavens, he prayed silently for salvation.

The fickle Fates ignored him.

"OOMPH!"

Jaken's breath whooshed out under the impact of Rin's small, yet sturdy, body colliding into his. Wrapping her smalls arms around the green imp, Rin screamed out joyously, "I've missed you, Master Jaken!"

'Stinking turnip!'

He scowled at the precocious brat, which didn't deter Rin's enthusiasm in the slightest. She disentangled herself from him but kept a tight hold on his three-fingered right hand, no matter how much he tried to take it back.

Jaken glared at the watching youkai, who were grinning over the tug of war he was having with Rin's viselike grip on his claws.

"Gah!" He growled at the ningen girl. "Let go of me, you stupid little weed!"

"But Jaken-san! I want you to come play Eagle-Youkai with me!" Rin protested, her deep brown eyes beguiling.

"Stupid girl! I don't have time to play-" Jaken paused a moment, suddenly realizing just what game the girl wanted to play.

'Eagle youkai?'

A picture of feathered perfection formed in his mental eye, and Jaken could feel a blush rising to his bulging cheeks. His yellow eyes turned dreamy, and his free hand-the one not presently gripped by Rin-fell opened on his chest, where his heart had sped up at the thought of Lady Lusaidh.

'My tennyo flies on eagle's wings, the better to make my heart sure sing...'

Pure poetry! He was becoming a master at it. Look how easily the words fairly oozed out of him. It was the unmistakable signs of a before-unknown gift for verse, come to flower with the gentling influence of true love...

"Jaken-san!" Rin interrupted.

"WHAT!" Really, the girl was the utter limit! He would strangle that brat if only me Lord would let him!

"I've got some eagle feathers right here. See?" Rin held up a mess of bright green feathers, clasped tightly in her little fist. Jaken stared at them, un-comprehending.

"They make it easier to pretend!" Rin finally let go of his claws, but only so she could pluck a few feathered treasures from her fistful and wave them in front of Jaken's face.

Jaken's beak fell open in surprise, before he snapped it shut with a smirk. "You stupid little ningen! Those aren't eagle feathers. Those are PARROT feathers."

Rin shrugged. "That's okay, Master Jaken. We can just use them to PRETEND we're eagle youkai."

"Stupid girl. Now where did you get them-" Jaken paused, horror suddenly dawning as he contemplated the obvious answer to his irritated question.

There was only one parrot in residence at the Taiyoukai's castle-the little green parrot who graced Lord Ryota's shoulder and squawked his name repeatedly as the oushi traversed the grounds. The little green parrot that the bull Lord was so proud of, preening and showing it off until Jaken could turn a darker shade of green with envy, though other, more uncivilized youkai saw the noisy creature as a nuisance and an irritant.

'She couldn't have. She couldn't!' But Jaken could see all too well a picture of Rin plucking the long, brilliantly colored tail-feathers of Lord Ryota's trained pet.

Jaken stared at the little ningen girl, who suddenly wouldn't meet his eye and was biting her lip. Her hands, with their betraying fistfuls of green feathered finery, went behind her back as if she could hide her mischief.

Jaken froze as he heard a loud roar-a BULLISH roar-bellow across the courtyard.

"Eep."

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"She is gone, my lord." The white girl with the soul-lost eyes bowed to her Master, her voice that of a tiny child's, her spirit much older...and empty.

'Kikyo...'

So she had gone, as he had half-expected she would. The cold miko thirsted for vengeance, and would not be denied her dark desires.

She was growing more like him every day.

'Tainted.'

Delightful thought.

With a negligent wave, Naraku dismissed the messenger, and Kanna turned and slipped out of his rooms without a sound to stir the silence. The red eyes glowed knowingly over the beautiful, nearly-completed bauble he held cupped in his palm. He did not have to worry over the miko's abrupt departure.

"She will return, for I have what she wants most."

The swirling fire of the nearly completed gem seemed to glow brighter for a moment, the inner lights gleaming malevolently from the inner sphere of the Shikon no Tama.


	62. Chapter SixtyOne: Longing

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters, etc. This story is for entertainment purposes only.

A/N: Again, I apologize for the wait. Thank you so much for everyone's support and continued demands for updates...they really do urge me on to continue this tale.

WARNING: DARK imagery. No one under seventeen, please!

Japanese Words

kochou - butterfly

kumo - spider

samba - midwife

osambasan - respected title for midwife

tsuchi - earth

koi - love (endearment)

Chapter Sixty-One (Blessed Stillness)

The ookami lay, broken and bone-shattered, in a huddle at the base of the rock, which was reddened by the splash of his blood across the sandy surface. Spiky black hair lay matted against the skull, which was caved in under the impact as the avenging Wind had finally let him go. The mouth, jaw dislocated and twisted, was opened in a horrified scream that emitted only silence.

An aura of fuchsia-tinged power shimmered from the shattered knees of the broken ookami, and there was a faint flicker of awareness in the wide, yellow eyes.

The six-legged insect cautiously crept forward, its faceted eyes mirroring the image of the broken youkai in the dirt a hundred-fold. Chitin scraped against chitin as mandibles twittered. Transparent wings, almost delicate in their vein-traced embroidery, flicked once in consideration. Hoisting its black and yellow body up from the crevice it had hid in during the whirling storm that had flung his brothers far away, the child of Hell, Naraku's minion, focused on the power of the Shikon shards jammed into the ookami's thighs.

Those shards might have saved the northern lord, might have mended his broken body, and pulled the breath back into his ruptured lungs.

But the Saimyousho's dark master had other plans for the Jewel fragments he had given Katashi, and allowing the northern wolf to survive was not among them.

Sudden knowledge flared in the staring, yellow eyes, and a thin thread of sound, uttering helpless rage, hissed out of the parted, bloodied lips. The Saimyousho ignored it, and went about its appointed task...

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Suyo raised his head as a pearl-touched kochou fluttered past him, singing a report of their proximity to the village of the Goshinboku, where the Lady Kagome resided in the care of an elderly miko. Another butterfly youkai joined the first, and Suyo nodded slightly as the notes filtered on the air. Raising a dove-grey hand, the spider youkai paused, and the guards stopped, pink eyes wary as they scanned the forest-cover, trying to pierce the black-fingered woods around them for danger.

A muffled voice raised in protest, and Suyo kept his expression carefully blank as the curtains covering the first litter were swept aside to reveal an irate inu youkai, her greyed hair swept up into a careful coiffure that was rather impractical for travel. Natsuko did not deal well with delay, and the spider youkai's infinite patience had been tested more than once by the querulous lady's complaints along the road.

"Why are we stopped, kumo?" The older inu demanded, her voice rising in increased irritation.

The second litter came abreast of the first, and Suyo saw with relief that Usagi, respected samba and nominally in charge of the female youkai whom he had escorted, was going to take charge of Natsuko, and he would not have to deal with it. The earth youkai, a lady in her own right and born of higher station than Natsuko, was even more irritated with the long journey than her inu companion, and her own voice rose, sharp and cutting. "Natsuko! Cease your grumbles at once! I am tired of listening to your whining voice!"

Natsuko gave the midwife a petulant scowl, but settled back into her seat. The softer voice of Suzume, another inu youkai, rose, trying to soothe the older woman's irritation.

Usagi's dark brown eyes swept over Suyo, and her question was silent, but she demanded an answer. Suyo bowed slightly, respectful of the earth youkai's position as head osambasan. The earth youkai was esteemed and revered for her knowledge of youkai midwifery, and it was only by the Taiyoukai's personal request that she had consented to come at all to attend the birth of the Western Lord's expected child.

"Our passage has been noted, Usagi-sama." Suyo explained shortly. "The kochou have let me know that we are being tracked by---"

Suyo abruptly turned as a red blur burst from the concealing brush just in front of the wagons. He stared at the amber-eyed hanyou, pink eyes whirling mildly as he took in the dark scowl and fierce grip on the sword hilt strapped to his side. A mere moment later, a black-haired man, dressed in the dark blue and purple robes of a Buddhist monk, joined the silver-haired hanyou.

"I believe we have arrived, osambasan." Suyo said mildly, bowing courteously to the disbelieving pair who confronted him and his large youkai entourage.

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Kaede regarded the large party of youkai that stood on her doorstep with her usual unruffled reaction when presented with the outlandish. But inside, her mind wandered over the deeper meanings and consequences that this spurious delegation signified.

The youkai in charge seemed to be a mild-mannered, four-armed spider. Suyo was dove grey in color, and little expression showed on his humanoid features. Kaede was not fooled by the kumo's seeming obeisance, however. A sharp intellect shown out of the spider's pink eyes, and although her first instinct was to trust him, she was still cautious in her judgement.

The one who took charge, on the other hand, was quite different. Kaede regarded the tsuchi youkai who stared back at her with some misgiving. The osambasan carried herself with a rather high air of esteem in her abilities as a midwife, and the shrewd brown eyes above a dark complexion and rather ample figure seemed to hold the old miko in suspicion, as if she found Kaede somewhat lacking.

The handful of female youkai who surrounded the tsuchi osambasan were a mix of species and appearance, but all of them seemed to hold a faint air of contempt as they made long-eyes over the small village in which they found themselves.

Kaede did not appreciate their disdain, and she frowned as Suyo stepped forward, his manner slightly apologetic. "Lady Kaede, I have escorted Usagi-sama here to examine the Lady Kagome, with the understanding that she would take over care for the girl."

There was a derisive snort just behind Kaede, who ignored the silver-haired hanyou to reply mildly, "This is quite unexpected, Suyo-san."

The spider merely bowed. "I have been instructed, my lady."

InuYasha was now growling, a faint sound, but nonetheless a telling one. The youkai samba looked offended, and the older miko wanted to chuckle at the expressions on their haughty faces.

This was going to prove quite entertaining.

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Kagura stood on the tuft-ridden rise that rose slightly up from the creek-crossed valley where the bloody battle between the wolf clans had been fought. Although she could hear the ookami stirring behind her, murmuring low to one another as their battle-ridden excitement wore off in the aftermath of victory, her mind was not on them.

It might have been the icy touch of the wind that made the pale youkai shiver, but it was not. The wolves had searched out Katashi's broken body, and brought back word to their leader and his mate that the Jewel shards shoved into the northern wolf's legs were now missing. The ragged remains of Katashi's tribe had been gathered up and were being watched closely by their eastern foes, and Kagura should have no reason for her nagging sense of unease, but the fear still nibbled at the edges of her mind.

It was not Katashi. He was dead, and she had never truly feared HIM. The Wind would never fear one such as he...pitiful wolfling...

But there was another...

Naraku.

'Madness...'

If she had a choice, she would never expose herself to him. But she had no choice...

The wind rose around her, wailing the lost cries of the dead to her in its lonely call.

...Vengeance...

Closing her bloodied eyes, she concentrated on that whisper of sound, wanting to call it back to her. She sought it out to strengthen her will in what she would need to do. In order to find Naraku, she must abandon all of her carefully wrought shields against the intrusion of her creator's insidious mind. She must open herself to him, and seek the knowledge of his location while hoping that he would not notice HER.

For though she was herself now, now that her heart had been returned to her, there was still the thinnest tie that held them together, that of creator and created...a disgustingly twisted parody of familial relationship that filled her with a bone-chilling fear that did not show on her carefully impassive features.

She feared, above all else, to be swallowed back into that writhing mass of putrid, rotting youkai flesh and dark desire, that all-consuming void of madness and hate. But for them, her brothers, her beloved, she would do anything, risk everything, deny nothing. Not even if she, herself, her true self, heart, spirit and mind, should be sacrificed on their behalf...

'To face him alone...I do not know if I will survive...' She thought desolately to herself. She had not the power she had once held, and even then it had been but a smidgen compared to the dark hanyou's---

Kagura jerked as a strong arm slid across her thin shoulders with a familiar motion. Her eyes snapped open and she stared in surprise at the icy blue gaze that met hers. There was a faint brush of compassion across her scattered thoughts, and an overwhelming sense of strength and reassurance enveloped her dark fears like a bear's hug of warmth.

"But you are not alone, koi." The icy gaze held hers as his arms slid around her smaller frame and hauled her closer to his strength and warmth. The wind rose, snapping the long tail of his midnight-black hair and spilling it among her own long tresses, whose waves rode the rising air unfettered, until there was no telling where one length ended and another began as their ebony hair feathered and fanned across each other's, touching softly, yet twined, just as their minds were now held as two parts of the same identity.

'Koi?' She wondered at the endearment. The wolf lord had never uttered something like that to her, and his casual use of it irritated her even as her heart-beat sped up at the deeper nuance behind it.

Koga nodded sharply, his mouth cracking an amused smirk, before pressing his forehead against hers and staring deep into her incredible eyes. Those eyes, whose rubied depths showed his heart's blood to him in their crimson midst.

"WE," He emphasized the word in a harsh whisper of promise, "are strong. WE will find that pile of monkey shit and WE will stomp on his foul filthy carcass until WE have killed him."

Sudden hilarity snapped through Kagura's mind and her eyes crinkled at the corners in an unaccustomed smile as she whispered back, "You are ever eloquent, my lord."

Koga growled on reflex, even as his mind seethed with her amusement at his expense. ...Damn wind wit---...

"Jerk." She cut him off sharply, and then startled them both by kissing him to silence his retort. Koga's arms tightened, and Kagura melted against him, their passion igniting across each other. They were one, and not alone...

"Koi." Kouga growled at her when their lips parted, his tone insulting, but his thoughts behind it anything but.

Kagura leaned up and kissed him again, making him flash an arrogant smile as she retorted, "Ookami inu."

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It had only been by Kagome's tentative agreement that InuYasha had finally relented, and allowed the head samba---Usagi---to come in to the hut. He would not allow any of the others to pass, and the remaining youkai ladies milled in the dusty street looking quite put out.

Kaede held the bamboo curtain open for the tsuchi youkai, who had gathered her navy kimono up in her brown hands and sailed right into the hut, looking around her with an appraising eye. Kaede followed, her expression grim. But the osambasan must know what she was doing. The Taiyoukai would send nothing but the best for his pup.

Or so the old priestess hoped.

Kagome sat up on her futon, cushions piled behind her. Koharu knelt beside the young miko, putting another pillow under her back and whispering something in her ear. Sango had refused to leave her imouta's side, and had taken up a crossed-armed stance inside the hut, much as her hanyou mate had taken to standing across the doorway on the outside. Sango's brown eyes were watchful, her manner formal as she nodded stiffly to the tsuchi youkai who spared her barely a glance.

The dark brown eyes were focused exclusively on Kagome, who flushed a bit with the osambasan's slow perusal.

"You are Kagome-sama?" The earth youkai's voice was surprisingly mellow and deep. Earthy, but without sensuality in the husky tones. "I am Usagi. The Lord SesshouMaru has sent me to oversee your care and the birth of his son."

The dark eyes watched as Kagome flinched at the Taiyoukai's name. The rest of them had been careful not to mention the inu Lord in front of her, though he was never far from any of their thoughts.

Something sparked in the wide brown eyes as the miko processed the osambasan's high-handed introduction. Kagome's expression turned stormy. "What do you mean, oversee?"

Usagi was impassive. "You have been honored, young onna, by the Lord of the Western Lands. I would not normally come such a distance to apply my craft."

"Honored?" Kagome's eyes flashed, and she bit the word out. Her hands tightened over the blankets drawn up over her belly.

"Kagome-chan..." Koharu put a comforting hand on the young miko's shoulder, and Sango gripped the hilt of her katana, her lips thin. The tension in the room could have been cut with a knife, and Kaede welcomed the interruption of Shippo as he bounced through the door, right under InuYasha's braced legs, the kittenish form of Kirara right behind him.

"Okaa-san!"

"Mew!"

Shippo hopped into Kagome's arms as Kirara jumped up onto Sango's---who had to drop the tight clasp on her sword in order to catch the small, furry kitten against her. Kaede gave the tiny neko a speculative look; had the fire-cat done it on purpose? But Kirara only purred contentment and rubbed her black-starred head across the taijiya's fingers.

Usagi regarded the rust-colored kitsune with mild surprise. "You have a pup already?"

Shippo swivelled his head, and blinked his wide green eyes at the dignified youkai. "Who's that, Lady Kaede?"

A brief smile touched the corner of the old miko's mouth. "She is Usagi-sama, and ye should not be so rude, young Shippo."

The little kitsune wrinkled his nose and said decidedly, "She smells like dirt."

Kaede awaited the dignified earth youkai's reaction, and was surprised when the dark-skinned midwife gave a short back of laughter. The laugh changed her whole expression, warming the dark brown eyes and giving laugh-lines to the creases in her ample cheeks. Koharu giggled, and the strained atmosphere relaxed as the tension was broken.

Shippo just gave them all a puzzled look, and Usagi actually knelt down beside the miko and kitsune so she could address him on his level. "Young kitsune, may I request your permission to examine your mother?"

Green eyes wrinkled. "Shouldn't you ask okaa-san that?"

"Perhaps you are right, kitsune." Usagi extended a blunt-fingered brown hand to ruffle the rusty-orange head with amusement. Shippo suffered the touch with a barely-hidden scowl.

Usagi stared deep into Kagome's lighter brown eyes, and asked simply, "Would you allow me then, young miko, to examine you?"

Kagome stirred uneasily. Her first instinct was to trust this weird samba, strange as the brown youkai was, but she still didn't like the high-handed air the osambasan had first affected. Her eyes flicked up to Kaede in question.

Before the older priestess could speak to reassure the girl, Usagi had picked up one of Kagome's small white hands in her blunt, calloused fingers. "I will not hurt you, child."

"She wouldn't, okaa-san." Shippo added, sniffing out the tsuchi youkai's intentions with his sensitive nose.

Kagome bit her lip, and then nodded slowly in agreement.

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Ginta stared down at his hands disconsolately. His claws curled tight into his palms as he turned the figures over in his tired brain. Only eleven of his youkai brothers had escaped the carnage of the wolf caverns, and he was the one to blame. Koga had left him in charge, to guard and protect the youngest and oldest of their clan, and he had failed them. It was his order that had sent his clan back into the caves, where only death lurked in the darkness.

And he had not even saved them. For that, he owed some unremembered band of washi youkai, whose screaming calls he had heard, thinking they were the ookami-eating Birds of Paradise. Nobu had informed him---gruffly, and with short words---how the eagles had come and picked up the fighting wolf-brothers in their talons, rescuing the last shreds of his clan from certain annihilation.

What would he say to Koga? What could he say? Koga had taken all of the able warriors with him to track down the traitor Katashi, and left him, Ginta, in charge of over a hundred ookami and their furry brothers. And he had failed them.

Only eleven.

A furry body stirred beside him, and a heavy head came to rest on the ookami's thigh. Ginta eyed the wolf with aching sadness. The red-brown brother had lost a leg in the battle---the old priestess Kaede had had to amputate the wolf's right foreleg at the shoulder in order to save his life. No longer would his brother be able to run like the wind on four legs, and hunt the wild game under his paws. He was now crippled---alive but unable to live.

Ginta wanted to cry, suddenly, but he didn't dare. Instead, he sniffled, and felt even worse. Why should he sit here and cry like a baby when he hadn't been able to save even one little brother? He was too worthless to cry...damn it...sniff...

The wolf whined comfortingly at him, and a warm tongue licked softly at his leg. Ginta clenched his fists so hard he could feel the sharp tips of his claws digging into his palms. If anything, it made him feel worse.

Sniff...

"Stupid whelp."

Ginta blinked, eyes shooting to the left. 'Hideki?'

The old wolf coughed weakly, and scowled back up at him, his filmy eyes narrowed on the young ookami. The grey hair lay matted against his head and the old youkai still had the faint bruising of his encounter with Katashi's northerners decorating his weathered skin. He had been amazed that the old healer had survived...dragged out of the caverns by some the youngest youkai, grazed by the poisonous teeth of a flying worm-snake, Ginta had thought there was no way the old wolf could live. But the poison had only slowed his healing, and the old wolf was as tough as an old boot. He had stubbornly hung on, even as other, seemingly more healthier ookami had succumbed to the poison and died.

"Hideki?" Ginta reached out a claw, and the three-legged wolf beside him thumped a tail in greeting.

"Stupid whelp." The old healer growled back at him and coughed again.

Ginta stared at the ookami in surprise.

"Quit your sniveling, boy." Hideki looked fierce, which was a pretty mean feat, considering he lay flat on his back and still too weak to move very much. "It wasn't your fault."

"But..."

"No buts, boy!" Hideki's voice was hoarse as he barked, bringing the attention of some of the other wolves, who came crowding over to sniff and whine at the old ookami. "Gah! Quit your nosing, you stinking furballs!"

The wolves ignored him, whining their happiness. The commotion as Hideki weakly tried to hold rough paws and lolling tongues at bay drew the attention of the old miko who nursed them. The woman, dressed in the red and white of a Shinto priestess, came and knelt between the two ookami, the disconcertingly single eye---the other covered by a patch of black cloth---traveling over the old wolf with assessment.

"Ye are awake, then."

"Obviously." Hideki was always sarcastic and grumpy when he was the one being taken care of. The old healer made a terrible patient.

The priestess was not ruffled by the old fart's comment. "Water?" She offered, bringing up the small jug she held clasped in one hand.

Hideki coughed hoarsely and nodded. The old miko made a motion at the crowding furballs, and amazingly, they quit pawing at the old healer and sat back on their haunches, watching the pair of them from a respectful distance.

Ginta's astonishment was as obvious as Hideki's. The old wolf gave the onna an appraising look as she helped him to sit up enough so that she could dribble water from the dipper tied to the side of the bucket into the ookami's mouth.

"Slowly. Ye mustn't drink it too quickly." The old miko's voice, as gravelly as Hideki's, was firm.

Hideki scowled. "I know, woman." He bit out between sips. The old miko promptly shut his grumpy mouth by pouring more water in it. Hideki almost choked, and she eased back the dipper and wiped the drops from his chin with businesslike motions.

The old wolf's eyes were alight as Ginta stared in surprise at them both. "You have a way with wolves, lady."

'Lady?' Ginta nearly choked himself.

The miko turned her attention to him, and calmly offered the dipper. Ginta was strong enough to feed himself, and he took the offered refreshment more for the distraction than from any true need. He knew admiration when he saw it, and Hideki was fairly oozing wolfish charm---or as much as he could lying there on his back and too weak to move.

The old priestess was hardly the picture of beauty. She might have been, once, but now she just seemed OLD. Not to mention, ONE-EYED. It was almost...disturbing...when Ginta thought about it.

"Ye'll be needing something to eat." The miko stood up after Ginta had finished drinking.

Hideki actually grinned, displaying the cracked fang that gave him his nickname among the eastern wolf-brothers. "Will you feed me yourself?"

He wasn't FLIRTING, was he?

Ginta just stared, dumb-founded.

A fine brow arched as the old miko looked down at the wolf. Her mouth curved slightly, as if she saw humor in the old wolf's attempts. With an enigmatic look, the old miko just turned away, motioning the sitting wolves to let her pass. They scooted, and Hideki's look was full of admiration---and just WRONG to Ginta's way of mind.

"That," Hideki pronounced with a weak cough, "is one fine woman."

Ginta just stared, despair forgotten.

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For once, she was alone.

Kagome sighed, feeling a little guilty about how relieved she was by the simple fact. 'Alone.' Really, she shouldn't wish to be alone. The fear that nibbled at the back of her mind---the fear that she refused to let out to examine---of being left alone, with children to raise in this harshly unforgiving era, without kith or kin, was frighteningly real. She didn't like to think about it. But in the darkest moments, when the nagging fear crept out to whisper uneasily to her troubled mind, her friends would come and chase it away with their simple presence, reassuring her with their unwavering faith and unquestioning support.

They comforted her, giving her solace when she felt lost or worried. She smiled softly, counting her blessings. They meant so much to her, and each of them had their own special gifts---Shippo's simple love, asking no questions and demanding only her attention; Miroku's unabashed charm and steadfast presence; Koharu's sympathy and ever-helpful attention, always eager to please; Kaede's steady calm and wise counsel; Sango's unquestioning loyalty and simple understanding of Kagome's moods...even InuYasha's fierce protectiveness and grumpy, frustratingly rude and callous remarks were all to be treasured and appreciated.

But, somehow, they were not enough.

Kagome bit her lip, chiding herself for being ungrateful. Her friends did not condemn her, did not chide her, did not redress her with all the problems she had created for herself...or been created. Their simple acceptance of reality had allowed her to bear her pregnancy rather calmly. She wondered, idly, if she could have expected such tolerance in her own era. Her mother would have been upset, Jii-chan bewildered, and Sota confused. Her friends...how would her friends have reacted? Ayumi, Yuka and Eri were not really all that mature. Or at least, each time she had gone back to her own time and ducked into school for some test or unable-to-miss class-work, Kagome had felt more and more distant from them...separated, somehow, from her dearest, girlhood friends.

Yuka and Eri were so focused on boys...boys with a capital B. Ayumi, though sweet, was a trifle on the dense side, and her love of geometry (heck, ANY schoolwork!) had always baffled Kagome. Sweet as the three of them were, Kagome often felt a nervous spurt of fear shoot up in the back of her spine when she thought about how, exactly, any of them might react to her pregnancy...and eventual motherhood.

Kagome giggled slightly in nervous irony. Motherhood! She was already a mother, or something like it, in the eyes of her little kitsune. 'Dear Shippo.' He was such a sweet little kit...and so cute she wanted to hug him tight like a stuffed plushie. But he wasn't a plushie. He was a living, breathing, vital little boy, and whenever she held him close to her, she could FEEL the difference...

"Ooh!"

Kagome shifted as the sharp pain stabbed again. Man, she hated it when the baby jabbed her ribs. The swell of her stomach rippled slightly in reaction as she rubbed absently on the spot. A second ripple reminded her—rather bracingly—that there was more than one of them in there rolling around like (giggle) puppies.

This was nothing. They were actually quite calm right now. Sometimes they were so active she felt like they were holding gymnastics in there. Far worse, though, when someone decided to take a nap on her bladder...

'Ugh. Don't even think about it!' Sometimes, she swore he or she or they or whatever picked up on her very thoughts, and would do exactly what she didn't want them to do. Getting up was enough of a chore that she didn't even grumble any more when Koharu or Sango offered their assistance. She was too grateful for their help getting the big turtle she had become up and on her wobbly feet!

The taut skin stretched across her once-flat stomach rippled again, and Kagome smoothed her small fingers over it in a familiar, absent motion. It surprised her sometimes, how often she would caress or cuddle her hands across her belly, as if she were cradling and comforting the small life—er, lives—within.

Yawning sleepily---man, she always seemed to be tired these days!---Kagome patted her kimono-clad belly absently and nestled deeper into the piled pillows behind her. A faint sense of nagging fear tugged at her, but her mind wandered elsewhere. It was often the case nowadays. She couldn't seem to keep a straight thought in her head, and she would drift for hours in a bemused state of hazy awareness, half-asleep and content to just drift.

'Man, I AM a feather-head!' She let that irritating thought go, and the irritating memory of InuYasha, arms akimbo and a typical sneer on his face, calling her that very word some time back when that really didn't matter really all that much, and she was too sleepy-tired to really care really...her thoughts drifted in bemusement as she thought of the look on his face. Always so irritatingly male...though she would often only focus on his eyes. Those golden-amber eyes that lightened into gold when he became so irritatingly irritated...

'Gold...'

So much like another pair of golden eyes, that could warm into liquid, as if the sun were bathing them in molten fire...eyes that could be so distant and chilling, and yet so fierce and wanting...

Kagome jerked.

'Huh?'

SesshouMaru WARM?

She MUST be losing her mind!

"Ouch!"

She unkinked her legs, pushing out of the cramp that had spasmed in her back as SOMEBODY---brown eyes glared at her stomach---poked her in the spine. The pup was as irritating as the father!

WAS SesshouMaru so irritating? Really?

Kagome flushed, confused.

She really WAS turning into a feather-head! Scatter-brained and confused, not knowing what the heck she was even thinking. That cold, arrogant fish was not warm! He was not feeling, or emotional, or protective. Patronizing, and arrogant, and irritating, and as stiff as dried glue, yes, but WARM? Never! The man couldn't even SMILE. Well, she had seen him smile---once. And it had sent chills down her spine, though she had ignored them and pretended not to notice how her knees wanted to shake under her short, green fuku and her fingers had white-knuckled on the smooth wood of her bow. It had been such a blood-thirsty smile...so chillingly EVIL...she rather preferred to see his typically stone-faced distant arrogance, his haughty, disdainful, unemotional mask than THAT. At least, with his normal, stoically composed mask, he was more himself, more familiar, and less...less...demonic.

And, not to mention, when his features were stilled, he had the face of an Angel...

'Angel?'

Where in all the earth had THAT thought come from?

A scattered memory came, sharp and piercing, and made her stiffen. The flicker of pain in deeply golden eyes, a moment's glimpse of a wound deep and hidden behind a barrier of indifference, flashed across her subconscious. It had only lasted for the merest breath—but the poignant emotion behind it had branded across her mind more than the darkening anger that had burned in those golden eyes after, when SesshouMaru had suddenly turned from tender lover to demonic beast, using her body in pain and anger...

For the first time, Kagome wondered what, exactly, had turned the lover into the beast. She had ignored it, not wanting to think about it. But it had always hovered, like an aching tooth, below her conscious. No matter how she chose to ignore it, it would always remain a sore point that she wanted to explore...

But then SOMEONE'S demonic child decided to do a belly-flop right on her spine, and put all thoughts out of her head.

Grimacing at the inhumane torture---really, the babes were as evil as their father---Kagome shifted her position yet again, and rolled over like a walrus. Snagging a pillow from one side, she pushed it under her hip, giving herself more support as she rested on her right side. For some unknown reason, the babes in her womb found it soothing, although she hated the strain the awkward, side-ways position put on her back and the whole pins-and-needles numbing of her entire right side.

There was a slight ripple in answer, and then stillness. Blessed stillness.

A village woman had told her to imagine a still lake, where the placid waters were smoothed over like glass, with nary a ripple to mar the surface. The soothing picture in her mind would soothe her child in the womb, quieting it into sleep...

Someone thumped her ribs, and Kagome rolled her eyes.

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SesshouMaru sat in blessed stillness, feeling the quiet solitude around him deepen. This high into the stone fortress that was his home, he could forget that the castle grounds were teeming with youkai and ningen, all preparing for war. He could forget that there were thousands camped out on his doorstep, and that his halls and holds were filled beyond capacity with those loyal to the inu.

And he could pretend to forget, for a small fissure of time, a pair of brown eyes that haunted his every thought, waiting for him to let down his guard enough to distract him from the various minutia of war and seize his awareness with their overpowering allure...

Closing his golden eyes, the Taiyoukai sank back into his chair, the merest thinning of the hard line of his mouth the only hint to the troubled thoughts within him. For one mere girl to hold so much of his attention was not worthy of him, and yet he knew, bitterly and full well, that there was not a damn thing he could do about it.

Acceptance was never easy, even for him.

His eyes opened, half-lidded, as he regarded the flickering red-orange flames of the fire he had lighted in the grate, more for the distraction than for the warmth. The glowing flames reflected copper highlights in the golden eyes that brooded over them. A faint smile touched the corner of his lips, a smile of bitter irony.

Was it acceptable in himself?

Turning his thoughts inward, he explored the new awakening within him...the realization that he needed the girl-miko as the air he breathed, or the blood that pumped its life through his limbs. It was a raw ache of self-reproach to acknowledge such a need, but he refused to ignore the emotion as paltry or beneath his notice.

Now that he had a space of time to devote to personal reflections, SesshouMaru composed his mind to stillness, surrounding himself with the empty quiet of contemplation. When he had achieved the desired stillness of his mind, he withdrew from the maelstrom of emotions that were his thoughts of the girl Kagome. He could now examine them at leisure, certain that if he dissected this need he might catagorize it as he had other experiences in his long life---and wrap it up neatly into a separate section of his mind where it could remain, ignored and detached.

Only then could he concentrate solely and absolutely on what he must do...

But the mixed feelings and sensations he had surrounding that particular miko were a tumult of disturbed emotions that he flinched instinctively from. Regret...yes, there was regret, and pain, deep, unacknowledged pain, uncertainty, and even...despised as he was to recognize it as such...a strange sense of apprehension for the unknown future and the dreaded fear of weakness that ANY emotion gave him. He disliked it, or acknowledging it, but ruthlessly refused to shrink away from it.

But it was not all dark. There was passion, deep passion, surprisingly deep. And the faint trace of unity, a whisper of what had held him enthralled before when he had joined his aura to hers, and taken from her the angry burden of her miko energies, simmering and boiling under her denial.

Did she remember that dreamlet? Did she know, in her conscious mind, what had happened between them?

Did he know, himself?

The inu growled faintly. It knew, without doubts or indecision, that she, Kagome, was simply his mate.

But he could not merely make her his possession, his claim. She was so much more vital than that, so much more alive...and it was that inner fire and conviction of life that pulled at him, perhaps, more than anything, with an almost jealous bitterness that the girl could be so free with her emotions, free and uncaring of the consequences. He was certain that he could never be able to willingly allow his tight control to slip, or to so easily let his guard down to reveal an inner self he seldom explored or acknowledged.

He desired her presence, suddenly and with a great, aching need for fulfillment. He wanted to SEE her...just see her...just feel her, to see if his troubled thoughts and emotions were real and justified. It would be so simple to reach out and pull her to him, call her name along the thin, iron thread that bound their souls. He had done it before, sending her name with a twitch of that thread, a vibration of his heart to hers, sending his desire for her presence, his desire for her acknowledgment of HIS presence, along it to sweep hers under his...

But he refused to diminish himself. He refused to plead after her like a small pup pining for milk and sustenance. He was SesshouMaru, the last child of a long and noble heritage. To demean himself to the level of supplicant? He refused. His honor would never allow it, and his honor, cold companion as it was, was still an important shield he used to keep his weaker side at bay. He would not allow the girl to tear it from his grasp. He would not.

And yet...

And yet he listened to the silence that surrounded him, and wished that he might hear his name on her sweet lips, calling to him as his heart called out to her, in silent longing.

In silent pain.

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Kagome nestled deeper into the pillows, feeling the drowning softness of the silk against her cheek. Murmuring softly under her breath in sleep, her open-fingered hand slid over the hill of her belly to the soft, furry blanket that covered her. The feel of the soft fur---a treated hide gifted or loaned to her by Usagi's insistence---reminded her, deep in restless dreams, of the caressing softness of another furry touch, and inside of her dark sleep, where her inner, dreaming mind wandered, she felt an unbearable ache of longing for its lost embrace.

'SesshouMaru...'


	63. Chapter SixtyTwo: Trouble

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters, etc. This story is for entertainment purposes only.

A/N: Thanks for the continued support! One note on Sessy's allies: I had not seen the episodes of the Panther-demon tribe yet when I started along this tack, and so Ryoukan and the others will not be making an appearance in Vengeance. Although the thought of Naraku having overtaken Ryoukan once before with a couple of Jewel shards was tempting, it just did not fit in with what I had planned. This chapter is a little long and quite jumpy, but I am impatient to get to the Battle, so please forgive. I've thrown out quite a bit of nonsense, I have quite a tendency to "over-write" things. XD Take care, and thanks again! - Fate

WARNING: DARK imagery. No one under seventeen, please!

Japanese Words

oushi - bull

kochou - butterfly

tsuchi - earth

ookami - wolf

Chapter Sixty-Two (Trouble)

Dead eyes surveyed the snow-covered village with no emotion in their cold, black depths. The desolation of the village's emptiness was covered by a pristine layer of white deception. She had seen the village of the demon slayers once before, just after Naraku had taken the horde of marauding demons into himself, stealing the Shikon shards that the slayers had guarded with their lives.

Something was different about the village. Even under a blanket of snow, there should have been more devastation...more destruction. Her thin awareness wondered if someone had repaired part of it, and why they might have done so.

But the answer was easy. The last surviving villager, the girl Sango, must have cleared some of the wreckage away. Had the girl not returned to bury her brother? Did it matter, truly? Whatever had been done to the village, to repair or to destroy, bore little consequence to what she now sought.

One of her Soul Collectors ribboned around her, a whisper of sound escaping it's opened mouth as its pale blue eyes shone momentarily. Kikyo turned away from the village, her mind carefully focused on what she had come for.

'Midoriko's tomb.'

And inside of that tomb, Midoriko's soul.

The ancient priestess of legend had created the Shikon no Tama with the very essence of her soul, entrapping the combined might of the ravaging demons of the past as her life was on the knife's edge of finality. Some thought that Midoriko's spirit now lay entwined with the demons, forever locked in unending battle with the dark heart of the monsters of the past with no hope of ever being free to lay down her blade and rest...

But Kikyo knew better. She could sense, had sensed, the aura of Midoriko's spirit locked within her tomb, Guarding the last testament of her heroic efforts. No one of evil intentions would be suffered to enter that cavernous crypt, and the barrier of Midoriko's will could be seen clearly by those who had been trained to discern such things.

And Kikyo had been trained since infancy.

The barrier was a fluid thing, a shimmering glow of sacred blue energy that hovered across the cave's entrance like a watery curtain. Kikyo's sandals crunched across the snow-covered rocky path. The snow soaked through her tabi socks, but the miko did not heed the cold, which only echoed the chill of death that shadowed her mannequin body.

Dark eyes empty and manner confident, Kikyo raised her white hands in supplication to the guardian spirit who protected those within. "I seek your power." Her voice was soft, hushed, reverent. "I am Kikyo reborn, sacred miko and Guardian of the Shikon no Tama. I seek your aid, Midoriko-sama, in order to recover the Jewel of Four Souls, which has fallen into darkness. I do not have the spiritual power to slay both the dark demon Naraku, who desires it, or the false priestess Kagome, who shattered the Shikon no Tama with her foul sorceries. I, Kikyo, born again into this earth, ask for entrance!"

She held her hands out, bowing her head. And waited.

Nothing happened, and Kikyo's head jerked up, her eyes black pools of dark rage. 'What is this? She would not dare to deny ME, would she?'

"Midoriko-sama!" Kikyo called out, her voice pleading and soft although her dark eyes flashed her anger and frustration. 'How DARE she! I am KIKYO!'

Perhaps the spirit could not answer, could not dissolve the barrier. Perhaps Midoriko could only let her through, to pass beyond into the tomb where the old warrior stood fixed in stone as she had been in the last moments of her life. Kikyo knew that she needed to get inside of that sanctum, to lay her hands upon the stoned body of the dead warrior-priestess in order to steal the shreds of soul still left within that eternal monument. Only with Midoriko's power could she hope to kill the girl Kagome, the girl who had taken her power and her soul and made her, Kikyo, steal the souls of the dead in order to fuel her own existence.

'I will live again!'

Midoriko, as trapped as Kikyo in a state that was neither living nor dead, but doomed to wander a shallow existence forever, would understand. She would sympathize. She would help her, Kikyo, to regain her power, and help her to reclaim the Shikon no Tama. Help her to heal it, and use it to turn the islands of Nihon into a peaceful paradise, untainted by the filth of demonic corruption. She, Kikyo, would ensure that never again, under her unending Guardianship, would her people suffer. If there was blood spilt along the way to achieving perfection, than so be it. If there were lives lost and hearts broken, than it was only a small price to pay for the greater good. Kikyo's vision was not like that of that foul hanyou, Naraku's. Hers was pure.

PURE.

Stepping forward, with all of the confidence of knowledge that she was a pure, untainted miko, free of sin and darkness, superior in both purpose and place in this world, closer to the kami than ever dare mortal dream or demon despise, Kikyo reached forward, expecting acceptance by her sister acolyte.

'Acceptance!'

The scream that was ripped from her undead throat was echoed back on her by the uncaring mountains. Fire raced along the miko's body, and her screech of outraged sorrow and rejection reached a new height in volume as Midoriko's power sang through her like a lance, like one of the purifying arrows Kikyo had used to kill hundreds of youkai and men. It BURNED, and the pain was unending.

Kikyo could feel the darkness reaching out for her. It had always waited with bated breath, waiting for her to weaken so that it could claim her once more. She could feel her cold body weakening as the souls trapped within escaped her loosened grasp. With a frenzied shriek, the dead miko screamed her denial to the heavens.

"NNNNOOOOOOO!"

'I must LIVE!'

She could not die a second time. She could not lose herself to the darkness, lose what chance she might have at regaining what she had lost. The sadness overwhelmed her until it smoldered and burned into hatred and rage. 'They did this to me! THEY did this to me! THEY---'

:Join us...madness...mad...join...us...mad...mad...join...:

The voices were reaching for her, they were much stronger now that her resistance was weakening. In another moment, her fragment of soul would depart this world and this clay body of ash and dust, and she would be lost forever...

:We will help you...:

:Help...mad...we...you...mad...help...you...:

The whispers grew louder, until Kikyo could hear them over her own unending scream as her body collapsed into the dirt, her limbs numb as the captured souls of the dead fled from her grasp. She clutched at the fragment that was hers, ripped from the essence of Kagome, and the anger and intense rage at the unfairness of it all fueled what little strength she had to pull back away from the silence of death.

She knew that to join with the mad whispers of her dark heart would be to forever abandon herself to it. She would be as Naraku, the spawn of darkness and the slave of evil...

But she would LIVE!

And with the dark power, she would be able to seek vengeance on those who had wronged her, those who had brought her, the sacred miko, to this dark hour of conflicted choice. With the dark power, she would be able to crush Midoriko's jeweled heart in her hand and claim the souls of all for her own use...

With a mad laugh, the miko opened her arms and surrendered herself into the embrace of darkness.

'I will LIVE!'

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The tiny kitten growled low in its throat, her eyes glowing crimson fire. The sleeping taijiya beside her murmured a muffled question, the brown eyes opening sleepily.

"Kirara?" The girl, Midoriko's daughter many generations removed, asked with concern.

The silver-haired hanyou who curled himself around the taijiya let out a jaw-popping yawn and blinked amber eyes. "Stupid cat."

The taijiya gathered the two-tailed kitten into her arms and held her snuggled against her breast. "What is it, Kirara? Is everything all right?"

The hissing growl died as the crimson glow surrendered. The two-tailed kitten rubbed Sango's fingers, seeking reassurance. The neko purred loudly and nosed her mistress's hand.

"Whatever it was, it's gone." InuYasha stared at the purring kitten in disgust before flopping back down beside his mate and muttering in a tell-tale yawn, "Dumb cat. Probably only a nightmare..."

"Maybe." Sango rubbed the neko's ears, her concern still evident. But Kirara only wrinkled her nose at the hanyou's remark and cuddled closer to her mistress, seemingly content. Sango sighed, and allowed the sands of sleep to flow over her once more. The neko purred in the dark night, huddling closer to her mistress.

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The sword hung in a small outbuilding by itself, on the far edge of the remote castle's rocky verge. The angry, fuchsia aura that hovered over Toukijin was enough of a ward to keep even the unwary at bay. Most of his pitiful servants feared that sword and the evil menace that surrounded it. Even Kanna did not deign to cross the threshold of the door, even though fear could not touch her emptyawareness.

Naraku had never let fear touch him---or not that he would admit. Besides, when all was said and done, this particular weapon was his own child, his own creation.

"I am here, my son."

He grinned, a maddened glint in red eyes.

Toukijin's aura darkened into rage, growing almost blood-scarlet in color as the swirling miasma of its aura spun with maddened fury.

"Is that how you welcome your master, Goshinki?" Naraku taunted his son before reaching out and laying a single, clawed finger on the braced bars of the sword's hilt. Instantly, the whirling ambience surrounding the blade became a hazy wisp as Naraku sucked the menace and rage into his own aura, draining Toukijin of its hatred and feeding on it like he did other demons.

Naraku let out a long sigh. "How lovely." He bowed mockingly to the sword that hated him, the sword whom he had had fashioned out of his son's fangs. A sword strong enough to break through the Tetsusaiga, steeled fang of the late InuTaisho.

A fit weapon for his hand.

"I thank you for the gift of your hate. It feeds me, and strengthens me. One day, perhaps, I shall take all of you in and bring you back into what I created you from, Goshinki. But that day has not yet come..."

The sword's aura had paled, a mere flicker compared to the angry miasma that had swirled around it before in perpetual frustration. Naraku made a low, tsk-ing noise in his throat and cut off the vacuum of his body as it fueled Toukijin's aura into his. Opening his claws, palm held out, he funneled the aura he had stolen back into the sword. The swirling mists that surrounded the sword's steeled blade thickened into scarlet-streaked fuchsia once more. The wheeling motion around the blade sped up into a tiny whirlwind, showing its anger and frustration as Naraku laughed and taunted,

"Soon enough, my son, you and I will be reunited."

The sword glowered, but the spinning whirl of wheeling fuchsia slowed as Naraku placed his claw back on the hilt and jerked at the miasmic aura in reminder of what defiance would bring. Death. Eternal death.

"Behave yourself, dear one. I have other uses for you yet. Be good, and I may reward you with the return of your true form, Goshinki. Serve me, and I may let you live. Defy me, and..."

He let the threat trail off. The sword seethed, but the mad spinning of the furious aura slowed in thoughtful silence.

Naraku patted the hilt fondly. "You will have your blood, my son. I assure you."

The aura brightened, the scarlet-touched fuchsia color deepening.

Naraku's dark smile was smugly sweet.

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"Susumu, I shall entrust you with the eastern flank." SesshouMaru tapped a sharp, white claw against the unfurled map which spread across the high table in the lower hall. His general, a young inu who showed much promise in strategy and battle, nodded thoughtfully. "Lord Shichiro, your uma youkai would be best assaulting from that small rise on the right. We will need the maneuverability of your men to act as a tactical diversion as I bring up the main force from the lower valley."

Shichiro, seventh Lord of the Horse Clans, merely grunted his assent. The horselord was a powerful youkai whose head was shaved except for the dark brown hair worn in a single long tail down his broad back. Short of stature, the uma was powerfully built, muscles bulging under the simple brown armor he affected in his humanoid form. He had been a close friend of InuTaisho's, and SesshouMaru trusted the lord's skill in battle.

"Now wait a minute!"

There was an uneasy stir through the small knot of youkai who attended this meeting as Lord SesshouMaru straightened at that bullish interruption. Golden eyes chilled as they turned to stare down at the garish form of Lord Ryota, who pushed his way past the other lords and generals to stand across from the Taiyoukai.

Lord Ryota was even shorter than Lord Shichiro. His own arms were muscled and strong, but the older lord had grown quite fat with good living and his lands' virtually assured security---a security provided by their alignment to the inu-held Western Lands. Belly bulging over the golden obi that knotted his red and purple kimono closed, the oushi youkai thrust out his chin in typical bullish style, and pointed a greasy finger at the Taiyoukai.

"I won't be needing any help from some stupid little ponies, SesshouMaru-sama! You promised me the front lines, and I'll be damned if I allow some piddling little mountain lordling to usurp my rights as lord."

There was a faint hiss from the youkai standing around them, and Shichiro had already laid hand to his sword, his brown eyes turning blood-red with anger over the insult. Lord Ryota was unfazed by the horselord's silent rage, or that of the Western Lord, whose demeanor had grown steadily more chilling.

Sensing the danger instinctively, Lady Lusaidh drew back with formal grace. The other youkai followed suit, stepping back, and watching to see what the inu Lord would do. InuTaisho would have beheaded the bull youkai where he stood without saying a word, but SesshouMaru had always been less volatile than his father.

Though just as deadly.

Silence descended, and even Ryota was finally affected by the flat stare the Taiyoukai gave him. Stirring uneasily, the bull youkai tried to apologize. "My lord...I was just..."

"Silence." The inu growled, and Ryota froze as he saw the blood seep into the golden gaze.

The bull lord began to sweat under that steel-eyed scrutiny, and he wished fervently that he had never come to the inu lord's call. If only his own father had not tied their loyalty to the inu, if only he, Ryota, had been given his due and allowed the forefront in battle, as his loud warriors had demanded. To a bull youkai, there was only the charge, the glorious rush at an enemy. Death did not matter, only the kill, and the charge head-long into honor and glory. His men had grown restless under the past years of easyliving. While Ryota grew more content to graze his own fields and marry as many cows as he could find, his men had grown restless. Ryota did not know for how much longer he could restrain them. They kept demanding he, Lord of the Western Cattle Clan, step down in favor of his eldest son, Ryo. But Ryota was not prepared to give up his place, his herds, or his power.

And now he wished fervently that he had. Oh, so very fervently!

It was his son who stepped forward to save him now. Ryo, his red-chestnut hair cut short and dressed in the plain armor of his preference, stepped forward and bowed low to the Taiyoukai.

"My lord SesshouMaru, I beg that you spare my father's life."

The golden eyes still glowed faintly crimson, and the inu growled beneath the cold voice as a single word made Lord Ryota flinch in fear. "Why?"

Steady brown eyes regarded the inu Lord with trust. "My father only seeks to keep the honor of the bull youkai intact. He does not realize, my lord, that our honor rests with yours, and that you would never allow our honor to fall."

The younger youkai bowed low again, and waited the Taiyoukai's judgement. The rest of them waited with bated breath, expecting the order of the bull Lord's death. But the anger was fading from the chilling gaze of the Taiyoukai, and he regarded the young son of Ryota thoughtfully.

"You are generous." SesshouMaru said, and the youkai flushed faintly at the praise. "Very well, Ryo-san. I will spare your father's life."

'For now.'

There was a surprised stir among the watching youkai, and Shichiro grunted his disdain. His general, one of his own young sons, wasn't as stoic, and burst out, "What of our honor, Taiyoukai? Ryota disgraced us with his words!"

Shichiro spun about and smacked his son to the ground with one powerful blow. There was an uneasy stir among the watching youkai, and faint whispers of agreement and dissent.

"He should expiate his shame on his sword!" One young youkai daringly challenged from the back. Others nodded in harsh agreement, and the bull Lord paled, the sweat staining his brow. SesshouMaru's cold gaze swept over them all, and the room grew silent once more.

"No." The Taiyoukai's voice was deadly cold. "He is not worthy of that honor." The golden gaze swept back to the trembling Ryota. "He lives in far deeper shame than taking his own life by his own blade would ever purge."

Contempt flared in the Taiyoukai's gaze as Ryota's held breath whooshed out in relief. "You will return to your home, Ryota and give thanks to the kami for your son Ryo, that he holds your clan's honor in his claws, and not you."

Ryota sunk into a trembling bow, and the Taiyoukai turned his back on him, rejecting the bull lord in the inu youkai way. The others paused a moment before turning as well, and it was Ryo who helped his father to stand and leave the hall on trembling legs.

After a bare moment, SesshouMaru waved the Lady Lusaidh forward, and went on as if nothing had occurred. "My lady, I am counting on your warriors to be my feint. Naraku will not expect me to have aerial fighters of any strength. I would have your warriors come in behind the first wave, as Lord Shichiro pulls back and I assault the walls of the castle..."

As Lady Lusaidh bent over the map with thoughtful contemplation, the other youkai lords and generals exchanged telling glances with each other before crowding around. Whatever was said of the inu lord, there was nothing and no one that could possibly distract him from his singular goal...

Vengeance.

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"It is a good thing, child, that you like to bathe."

"Of course I like to bathe!"

"Many ningen do not." The other midwife, Junko, replied rather blandly, to Kagome's glare.

Usagi shot her assistant a quelling glance and motioned for her to go on about her duties. Junko shrugged and calmly reached into the tepid water for one of Kagome's feet. Kagome let out a startled yipe as she felt the blunt fingers right there in her bath water, and tried to shimmy aside. Water sloshed over the sides of the stout wooden tub Usagi had ordered built and splashed onto the floor and the three other women who knelt there.

"I only want to massage your legs, girl!" Junko told Kagome impatiently. Kagome flushed an unbecoming shade of scarlet. Bad enough that everyone and their sister wanted to sit and watch her take a bath, let alone reach in and GRAB at her!

Usagi laid a gentle hand on Kagome bared shoulder. "Massage is good for the circulation. The added weight you carry weakens the blood to your extremities." With demonstration, Usagi nudged out Kagome's hand (which was white-knuckled on the side of the tub) and took it between her blunt, brown fingers. With deep, gentle strokes, the osambasan eased the muscles in wrist and fingers. Kagome relaxed enough to where Junko could grasp one of her feet and pull it out of the dripping bath.

Kagome tensed back up again, but Koharu leaned forward to whisper sweetly in her ear, "It's okay, Kagome-chan. Usagi-san has told me all about shiatsu."

It still didn't help.

Koharu had taken an instant hero-worship of the old earth-youkai. She followed her around, and asked after many things that made Kagome yawn. Koharu was nearing her sixth month of pregnancy, and anxious. She often told Kagome in aside that she was learning more about youkai healing and birth from the earthy midwife than she had ever learned from her adopted mother or Lady Kaede.

Strong fingers grasped the arch of her foot and pressed down, before running a light, feathering touch back up to her toes. Kagome giggled at the ticklish sensation, and tried to move her foot away when the motion was repeated. It was Junko's turn to glare, and mutter, "Ningen."

"Junko!"

All of them jumped at the sharp tone, and more water splashed over the sides of the tub. Usagi's dark eyes were cold. "Your prejudice does you no credit. You will leave us."

Junko bowed so low her nose touched the wet floor before turning away and departing Kaede's small hut. The silence was strained, and Kagome suddenly shivered. Youkai were so strange...and they thought SHE was! Usagi could be kindness itself, but she would not tolerate any behavior that might upset her patient. She could be a demanding tyrant at times, and what was worse, old Kaede often agreed with her!

Kagome could still remember the battle over the goat's milk, which Usagi insisted she drink at least twice a day for the calcium. Kagome loathed the taste of it, and had demanded to know why she couldn't drink cow's milk like everyone else. But Usagi had arrogantly replied that inu pups could not tolerate the thicker substance of a perfectly good milk cow, and Kaede had thoughtfully agreed, pointing out that even puppies born in the village whose mother could not feed them were fed on goat milk.

And so Kagome had bowed her head to their knowledge, and held her nose while drinking the nasty stuff.

Usagi had taken over her care, and with a vengeance. Miroku and InuYasha were tossed out of the hut, and refused entrance, even though Kagome asked for them. Usagi flatly disapproved. Men were not to be present or near a pregnant woman, especially ones who had gone hunting, as was necessary for Miroku and InuYasha to do in order to stockpile the village for the coming harsh winter that even Koharu could sense in the air. Kagome had argued the point as just so much rubbish, but Usagi had replied that in the usual circumstances, a bearing woman's husband would not even consider hunting for her full term of pregnancy.

Kagome had forborne to point out that HER circumstances were far from usual!

She had insisted that they be allowed to visit each day, and it was Kaede who pointed out rather drily that dogs were considered to be good luck to a pregnant woman. Some of the other village women, ones who had given birth or helped in birth before, had staunchly agreed, and old Kumiko (whose eels Kagome would never forget!) had suggested Kagome go and pat InuYasha on the nose for good luck, as she would a good little doggie.

InuYasha had exploded at the notion, and only Sango could make him calm down enough to leave without telling the helpful old woman what she could go and do with her damn doggie-pats.

Kagome giggled in remembrance, and then gasped as Usagi's strong fingers smoothed over her shoulders and right over her breasts. She lurched backward, away from the unwelcome touch, but Usagi hung on grimly.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Kagome squealed, her face on fire.

"Massage." Usagi said crisply, ignoring the young miko's embarrassment. With her arms wrapped around Kagome's shoulders from behind, she couldn't move, and Kagome squealed when the blunt fingers started rubbing her tender nipples vigorously.

"OW!"

Usagi merely grunted, continuing her brisk ministrations.

"Don't fight, Kagome-chan!" Koharu whispered again in her ear. Kagome wanted to strangle her. She was going to die of mortification, if she didn't die of the pain FIRST.

"Usagi-san says your nipples are too tender for youkai teeth, they must be toughened, and this is the only way." Koharu went on earnestly.

She didn't care one dang bit if her breasts were too tender for youkai teeth...she was hurting NOW! But, even as she thought it, the pain was receding, and Usagi's motions were easing. The osambasan finally let go, and patted her on the shoulder like SHE was a good little doggie.

"You are young, and over-emotional. Pregnancy does that. But what I do, I do for necessity, young miko." The tsuchi said, not unkindly.

Kagome only glared.

Necessity was a (witch).

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"What do you think you're doing, you stupid little girl?" Jaken stared at the rotten little turnip with ire.

Rin ignored the little green imp's exasperation, and continued on unperturbed with her self-appointed task. Carefully folding a peach-blossomed kimono, she lined it up next to the dark green one. Humming a little tune under her breath, she slipped a spare pair of sandals into the small bundle.

Jaken stared at her, galled impatience growing. Rin kept folding without paying him the slightest bit of attention. It was disgraceful, how she ignored him as if he, First Advisor and humble---yet undeniably irreplaceable---servant to me lord SesshouMaru, was not even there. Finally, he could stand it no longer, and shouted, "WELL?"

Rin looked up, brown eyes curious. "Well, what, Master Jaken?"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Jaken shrieked, eyes bulging. There was a muffled laugh outside the door, and Jaken snapped his beak closed with even more ire, recalling his dignity. The castle was aswarm with bustling youkai and ningen, packing and gathering and hurrying about with important matters---more important than one recalcitrant little stinking twit of a ningen brat!

Rin smiled. "Packing."

"What?"

"I'm packing, Jaken-san." Rin repeated patiently. She often had to repeat herself to the little imp who was her playmate, but she never held his limited faculty for comprehension against him.

"For what?" Jaken stared, a small arrow of worry piercing through the armor of self-assurance. Had he heard the Taiyoukai correctly? Had he missed something? Hadn't me Lord SesshouMaru stated very clearly that he, Jaken, would be accompanying him across the mountains to the dark hanyou's castle, and that this little troublesome twit would not?

Jaken had been elated. SesshouMaru needed him...and NOT as a baby-sitter for that stupid little ningen girl he had taken a passing fancy to.

The great inu Lord couldn't have changed his mind...could he?

No one knew what the great Taiyoukai would choose to do next...least of all his most loyal and trusted servant---er, ADVISOR---Jaken.

"For the war." Rin explained, blithely interrupting the troubled imp's troubled thoughts.

"War?" Jaken felt like an idiot, squawking back the little onna's words like poor, humiliated Lord Ryota's poor, humiliated parrot.

Rin smiled, hoping her little green friend would finally understand what she was telling him. In case he didn't, she calmly repeated, "I'm packing, Jaken-san, for we all go to war."

"War?" Jaken parroted, gulping.

He hadn't really thought about it, but of course they were going to war! He had just assumed that this was a mustering of me Lord's forces for show...an honor-guard, perhaps. The task of eliminating the dark hanyou would be almost anti-climactic, in Jaken's personal opinion---when he even bothered to think about it. He had been too busy with other matters...like finding a spare servant to sew together a brand-new pair of brown robes, so that he could throw out his fishy-smelling second-best and turn his hem-torn first-best into his second. His third-best were too wrinkled to be considered, and Jaken had been rather pleased that the harassed maid (harassment having coming from him, as he believed the lazy slattern would have ignored his polite request in order to do the other duties assigned her...who cared what soldier needed links sewn into his armor, when he, First Advisor to me Lord SesshouMaru, was stumbling around in disgusting attire unfit for his worthy station?) had finally finished his garments, and had been in rather a good mood until THIS.

But if me Lord were going to WAR, why that meant that he, Jaken, had so much more to do than stand here talking with a stupid little stinking turnip like Rin. Why, men and youkai could be KILLED in war! They could be lost along the way, or fall ill, or a hundred and one other things that might befall the unwary imp who journeyed without prior precautions as to his personal protection. Not that he doubted me Lord wouldn't manage all too well, but the Taiyoukai was too important to be bothered with the million and one tiny details that would surround his calling his allies and armies to WAR.

Why, had there even been an order of march planned? Many youkai would demand to be at the front, namely Lord Ryota---well, maybe not HIM. Jaken recalled belatedly that THAT particular bull lord was now out of the picture, and his vast ego would not have to be considered. Now, he, Jaken, should be at the forefront, right behind the Taiyoukai. Wasn't HE the First and Foremost Advisor to me Lord SesshouMaru?

Dismissing Rin from his thoughts, the imp turned around, yellow eyes shining. What had made him tremble with anxiety before was now almost thrilling. What better stage could there be but for me Lord to show his might and power to the known world than in front of those very armies and allies who were most loyal to him? The defeat of Naraku would be publicly spectacular, he was certain, and the Taiyoukai's honor and status in the eyes of the world would rise as a result.

Wasn't war wonderful?

Jaken picked up his beautifully-sewn brown robes and sailed from the room. Rin watched him with a quizzical expression. A sudden, tardy thought stopped him in his tracks at the door, and he stuck his olive-green head back in to snap out, "Don't even think about packing, you little fool! YOU are not invited, and I, for one, am delighted by the thought! Quit causing trouble to your betters, and put those clothes back where they belong! You stupid little twit, whatever made you think SesshouMaru-sama would ever consider taking YOU along! I, for one, am HAPPY you are going to be out of my hair...er...claws! Whatever made you think me Lord would ever consider..." His voice droned on in a nasty grumble as he exited the room, leaving the little girl behind to ponder his words.

Rin stared at the empty door...and giggled.

Wasn't Jaken-san cute?

But then she quieted, a worried little frown marring her pretty little face.

He couldn't be telling the truth...could he?

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An Ash-demon, manner diffident, bowed low. "Your mount awaits, my Lord."

SesshouMaru nodded once in silent acknowledgment. He strode across the erupting courtyard into the relative quiet of the stables. The castle resembled a small ant-hill that had been pulled over, so that it's teeming colony rose out of the depths of darkness to scurry about in startled surprise.

The impromptu camps that had dotted the valley below had been struck, and his allies made ready to march. His generals and lords had gone to see to their own men, and directions had gone out as to what company would go where. SesshouMaru had no purpose in hiding his intentions from the dark hanyou. Perhaps it was inu arrogance, but SesshouMaru would not skulk in the night. Naraku would know what marched to his very door, and tremble before the gathered might of the Taiyoukai's wrath.

HE was not one to hide in the shadows.

"You be good to my lord, Ah. You too, Uhn. I want you to protect him, and help him."

Golden eyes grew thoughtful as he watched the small wisp of a girl who had her arms wrapped around the two-headed dragon's joined withers as far they could go. Ah nuzzled the black curls while Uhn looked up and huffed a greeting to the watching Taiyoukai.

Rin blinked, and a broad smile split her face. "My lord! I have been waiting for you!"

"Rin." SesshouMaru's voice was cool, but his eyes warmed slightly as he regarded his ward. The love-starved little girl took it as license to dart across the straw-strewn floor and tangle her arms around a silk-clad knee.

Golden eyes widened the slightest bit in surprise at the strength of the little girl's hug before Rin---never one to push, and ever sensitive to her adored master's levels of tolerance---stepped back and gave him a rather tremulous smile. SesshouMaru could smell the tears that were held back from furiously blinking brown eyes.

His voice softened as he questioned her tears. "Rin?"

The little girl just shook her head, and turned away to hug Ah-Uhn as tight as she could, a hug that was meant for her beautiful lord, but one she could not give him. Even with her childish understanding of the world around her, she understood HIM. "Take care of my SesshouMaru-sama." She whispered thickly, before turning and running out of the stable.

The Taiyoukai stared after his vanishing ward for a long moment, before Uhn wuffed air through his bridled nose and Ah made a low, plaintive noise. Stepping forward, SesshouMaru smoothed his claws across the twined neck in silent understanding before recalling himself. Slipping the reins through his fingers, he mounted the two-headed dragon with a single, graceful movement. Pressing his muscled thighs into the dragon's sides, he nudged Ah-Uhn forward, out into the waterysunlight that did little to warm one.

Focusing his thoughts, the Taiyoukai assumed the mantle of cool command once more, the slight interruption forgotten as his formidable mind flew forward, into the unknown future he had prepared for.

Nothing...and no one...would stand in the path of vengeance.

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"I desire you take the girl." Naraku said coolly. "As a mere show of your sudden loyalty to me. A sign, perhaps, of your abilities."

The youkai in the misty face of the mirror bowed his head, his eyes bleeding slightly with outrage that the dark hanyou would demand a show of his own innate worthiness. Had he not presented the rotten monkey with a Jewel shard as a sign of his pledged allegiance? But without Naraku, he would not be able to gain his own pride and position back. And kidnaping the young miko would be easy.

So very easy.

"As you wish, my lord." The youkai bowed his head again, and Naraku dismissed the image with a wave of his hand, his red eyes glowing with glee.

All was falling easily into place as he with his dark heart had known it would.

So very easily.

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A single light danced above the vast army that rolled across the rocky landscape. Trailing a champagne-colored trail of diffusing light, the butterfly youkai flit from one side to another. It sang out to its brothers, who returned the oddly lyrical note in a higher pitch than the rumble of thousands of men and youkai shifting ranks and settling into their position of march. Strange voices rose, in growls and bellows, as hooves pawed the dirt, and claws dug in tensed anticipation. Any moment now, the Taiyoukai would beckon. Weight shifted, and metal weapons clanged against shields. Generals called out to their men, and commanders bellowed. Lords raised their heads high, looking for the signal to come. High above, higher than the butterfly's fluttering path, an eagle keyawed.

The glowing nimbus that surrounded the kochou brightened as he caught sight of his Lord. With a flick of his delicate wings, he drew alongside and sang out that all was ready. The Taiyoukai gave his tiny messenger a sharp nod, the golden eyes surveying the panorama of his armies and allies before him with cold calculation. The eagerness and excitement shown by the others bore no weight in the Taiyoukai's cool gaze. He sat as still as a statue, untouched by even the icy wind that howled down from the upper mountains. The ever-present clouds which covered the sky in sullen mists had parted, allowing weak sunlight to filter through that did nothing to warm the waiting assembled.

"Me Lord! Master SesshouMaru!"

Jaken, his brown robes kilted up to his knees, scrambled up the rocky rise on which his Lord rode the two-headed dragon Ah-Uhn, whose tail lashed at the Advisor's hasty approach. Panting with the effort, the little imp almost fell flat on his beak before righting himself and making a rather graceless bow. "Me Lord! All is ready! They only await your order to march!"

The little imp puffed up with self-importance, his yellow eyes almost teary with devotion and pride. All of the Taiyoukai's power and strength were here, displayed before him, and all of them, daimyo and youkai, clan-ally and pledged vassal, waited for his Lord to lead them into glory and honor.

The Taiyoukai's cold glance swept across the vast army and on toward the southeast, where lay his enemy like a filthy spider in its web of treachery. They marched to the heart of the baboon's lair, there to ensnare him and bring forth the vengeance they sought. He could not hide such vast numbers from the dark hanyou's spies, and did not care to. Naraku would see him coming, and know that it was his own death that marched straight to his door.

Raising his single arm, the Taiyoukai allowed the green mist of his poisonous acid to seep out among his opened fist. With a slight, almost casual motion, he tossed the small ball of eerie green light up. It spun for a moment, and then exploded into splinters of flashing radiance.

The resounding roar that filled the valley from end to end echoed off of the very rocks, where even the snow-capped peaks could not muffle it.

It had begun.

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He studied the jagged edges for long moments before selecting the first of the three shards that lay scattered beside him. With much care, he aligned the pointed edge of his chosen piece into the crevice that marred the perfect, glowing sphere in his palm. The Jewel hummed for a breath's moment, and then flared dark fuchsia as the two pieces, mother and daughter, aligned together. The glow deepened, and then subsided, leaving the once-separate edges seamless and whole, as if the smaller Jewel shard had never been rent from the other.

Red eyes alight, the dark hanyou picked up a second shard and studied it carefully. Each of them were so beautiful, with their own special light, their own particular features that he could stare at, mesmerized, for hours. But when he was able to align them SO, and add the small shard to the larger bauble, it was almost as if he could feel the power of them surge, feel it grow with each tiny increment added...

It was beautiful.

Utterly, fascinatingly beautiful.

With an almost weary sigh, he enfolded the third shard into the crevice until it, too, sealed itself to the jagged crack that marred the perfect surface of the Shikon no Tama. He cradled the bauble in his palm, wishing he might sink his awareness into it and flit away a few hours in dreamy contemplation of all that he might achieve with the help of such a perfect little tool of Power. But there was no time for idle daydreams. There was too much to be done, too much to prepare...

He had laid his trap carefully. And if the dog had surprised him, in coming to him across the wintry world'ssurface like a neighbor come to call, but with sharp spears instead of gifts of food and drink to welcome him, than he, Naraku, must just simply adjust his plans.

It did gall him to have all of his neatly laid traps tangled by the dog-demon's obstinatetenacity, but the dark hanyou was adaptable. If the dog-general's son wanted to flex his muscles in a bout of wills, than so be it. He had his own allies, his own resources. He was more than equal to what that paltry Taiyoukai could send him.

A clawed thumb glided over the smooth surface of the Jewel with pleasure. With THIS, he was more than a match for SesshouMaru. And with THIS, he could take the dog-demon into himself as had been his goal from the start.

Red eyes glowed crimson promise.

'Come with your army, dog. I am waiting for you...'

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Koga's attention was all on his mate, who stood, back straight and body stiff, her whole attention focused on the greying mountains below them. He knew that she feared this with all of her soul, but his heart swelled with pride at the steeled strength in her that allowed her to set that fear aside in order to ease the mental barrier she had thrust up to keep the insidious mind of her dark creator away from claiming hers.

He formed a mental gift of his own admiration and strength, and sent it to her. Her fixed attention did not waver, but her delicate fingers, clasped in his, tightened slightly in appreciation.

"Uh...Koga?"

'Damn it all!'

He growled, his blue eyes flecked with ice as he turned his attention away from his mate and to the poor lout who stood nervously jiggling his weight from one foot to the other.

"What." He kept the volume down, but Hakkaku jumped a good foot in the air and scratched the back of his shaved head while trying to look innocently chagrined.

"Uh...Koga...uh...the northerners are asking for you."

The air in his lungs was lent out in a gusty, impatient sigh. 'Damn it. What now?' Them damn fish-eaters had been kept to themselves, and he had no time to spare for their whining complaints. He had set a few wolves to guarding them, but intended to abandon the dumb louts just as soon as Kagura found out in what direction Naraku's castle lay. They posed no problem, now that Katashi was dead. He was tired of wasting his time on the stinking cubs, and he needed every single one of his ookami to be ready to go at a moment's notice.

He damn well didn't want to waste any of HIS energy on dealing with the fishy remnants of Katashi's defeated tribe...

His mouth opened to snarl a denial, when he spied a young grey ookami nervously waiting just beyond Hakkaku. His glare made both wolf-brothers---east and north---flinch, but there no help for it. He'd have to go and listen to the damn wolf's damn howls.

Koga motioned sharply for Hakkaku to walk with him, away from Kagura, where they might disturb and distract her intense concentration. The northerner, a limping grey flea-bag at his knee, followed slowly. A couple of red and brown wolves silently padded up to them, making long-eyes at the lean grey wolf who dared to approach their leader.

Koga chose a nice, solid rock as a handy seat and waited with arms crossed for the northerner to approach. Hakkaku kept his spear ready, and the eastern wolves growled low in their throats. The northern bastard flinched, but kept his back straight as his furry companion nudged him forward.

The wolf-brother was young, and bore wounds across his face and a dirty bandage on one arm. But there was some pride in him, and he straightened his shoulders after bowing low to the eastern lord. His voice was hoarse and low, as he said simply, "Take us with you."

Koga's gaze was forbidding and cold. His voice was harsh as he snapped out, "Why?"

"There is nothing left to us." The northerner bit his lip. He was young, but ardent. He MUST make the eastern lord take them with him. There was nothing left to them now. The dark hanyou had destroyed their clan once before, when they had sought out the Jewel shards for their own use. And the white baboon had betrayed their leader, Katashi. Although none of the northern clan had supported Katashi's decision to seek the dark hanyou's aid, the betrayal and murder of their former leader was just another blood-stain on their honor, tattered as it was.

There was nothing left to them now but vengeance.

Koga's blue eyes bore into the northerner, who stood for what seemed like eternity. The dim, brown eyes seemed to glow a moment with the red lust of rage, before he bent his head and awaited the eastern lord's decision.

In the back of his mind, Koga felt a sudden stab of elation, before it was quickly buried beneath a wary caution. He felt Kagura's barriers snap shut, and knew that his mate had discovered just where the dark hanyou now lay hiding as satisfaction unfolded in wisps across the back of his thoughts.

It was time.

Making a sudden decision, Koga abruptly stood. A wolf howled as Kagura stood also, her red eyes glowing like rubies with sudden blood-thirsty anticipation.

His voice was harsh as he called on all the wolves to join them.

"Come."

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The white child bowed low to her dark master, taking her leave at his impatient wave of dismissal. A slight frown wrinkled across the pale brow above the dark, soulless eyes before smoothing away as she slid the shoji-screened door closed with a small click. Her sandals made whispered scrapes against the stone floor of the dim hallway as she withdrew slowly to her own small rooms in the back of the main great-house of the sprawling castle.

Outside of her own door, Kanna paused for a moment and turned the mirror held in her hands so that she could again view the swirling darkness that clouded out vision. The mirror's surface remained tumultuous and showed her nothing. If she had known emotion, she would have felt anxious over the mirror's refusal to cooperate, but she was the Void, and could not feel. There was a troubling in the air, though, as if the world held its breath. In the hushed quiet of oppressive waiting, she sought knowledge of the future.

Sometimes, her mirror would show her what might happen, what might come to pass if the present acts of the world aligned to allow the predicted outcome in the mirror to come true. But the future was a fluid creature, twisting away even from the threads of Fate, or the determination of mortal or youkai. Often, when asked, the mirror would show only the spectator's own desired image of the future, affected by the power of the viewer's own wishes. With it, she had shown Naraku his own dreams of ultimate power and domination realized, and her dark creator had summoned her often to his chambers, to stare in delighted fascination at what the mirror revealed to him in prediction.

But it was only a reflection of the dark hanyou's deepest desires. In an odd way, Kanna's mirror resembled the Jewel of Four Souls. It made the possibilities of a man's ambition to come true---if only in image on the glowing surface of the mirror, instead of in truth. It could be a powerful tool, if used correctly. What the viewer wished to see, the mirror would show him. It had often served a dual purpose as spy and revelation. But Naraku was too busy at the moment to be bothered by Kanna's mild worry over the sudden clouding of her mirror when she sought to use it for prophesy.

He had not even consulted the mirror past the first time he had demanded she show him the enemy's march across the lands of Japan. He had stared at the Taiyoukai, who rode the great two-headed dragon above the line of march his army snaked across the winter-held landscape. And his expression had been strange...almost avid...his red eyes glowing with anticipation, rather than enmity.

"Soon, my lord Taiyoukai..." Naraku had drawn out, with a dark purr. Then he had abruptly dismissed Kanna, and had not summoned her again.

Kanna turned the mirror and held it to her tiny, child's chest. Her eyes reflected nothing, for the Void was made of nothing, but her head bowed slightly, her white hair sweeping forward to hide her pale face. Her master played with fire, and even if she had had use of her mirror, she could not have dared to predict who just might get burned...

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A wolf wuffed beside him, and Hideki scratched the lolling furball behind his ears. He was lazily enjoying the afternoon, watching as his wolf-brothers helped some of the villagers put up shutters along the thatched huts that lined both sides of the river. It had been Nobu's notion to have the ookami aid the villagers to prepare for the coming winter in payment for their generousity in taking the wolves in and healing them. It helped the recovering ookami to build up their strength, and the villagers seemed more grateful for the assistance than offended by the source.

This was a strange place. Most ningen were afraid of youkai---and with good reason. Hideki had never really cared one way or the other---an onna was as good as a youkai when it came to some bed-warming on a cold night, but he wasn't an idiot. It was rare for human and demon to mix in any way, and the people of this village seemed unfazed by the arrival of several youkai in their midst.

Hideki's eyes wandered over the changed landscape. The small village had been increased by quite a few structures. Each of the youkai ladies the Taiyoukai had sent had demanded her own residence, disdaining to mix with the lowly peasants of the village. The Ash-demon guards the spider Suyo was in charge of had only been able to build three huts, and that gaggle of querulous females had complained about the cramped space as they had been given only one of them for their use. The osambasan had taken up her own quarters, ignoring the complaints of the others with her usual high-handed manner. Hideki actually respected the old crab-face. She didn't put up with any nonsense. Only two of that gaggle were allowed to live with her in the hut, and it made the other females' eyes bleed with jealousy.

The Ash-demons were busy building more houses, hoping to ease the crowding and complaints, but Hideki didn't think they would finish in time before the first blizzards struck. It had snowed a few times already, and even now the icy touch of the wind foretold sleet in the night. Such weather was unknown in this remote village, but Hideki knew in his old bones that this was going to be one hell of a winter.

"C'mon, wench!"

The old wolf grinned as he watched the rough-spoken hanyou swing an arm over the taijiya's shoulders and drag the glaring girl off. That dog had guts, and Hideki had always liked him. He was more like Koga than the stupid wolf would ever admit, and he was glad that both of those clout-heads had finally found their own women and would quit fighting over the miko Kagome. Not that either of them knew that yet. Still, it made the old wolf look forward to the eventual confrontation of those two bull-headed idiots when they realized they didn't have a reason to fight anymore...

A howling caterwaul reached the old ookami's ears, and he swivelled his head, just in time to see a pack of wolves, tails between their legs, come bolting down this side of the river, yelping and hollering like Fury herself was behind them.

And she was.

The fire-neko was three times the size of his furry pack-brothers, and her roar drowned out all their high-pitched howls as she chased them right down the center of the village. Startled ningen and youkai got out of the way just in time, and one of those females poked her head out her door just long enough to shriek as the cream-colored demon flashed past, her twin tails leaving a stream of orange fire trailing behind her.

'Stupid whelps!'

They were at it again. Those damn mutts couldn't seem to grasp the fact that that cute little two-tailed kitten with the over-large eyes could transform at will into a saber-toothed, fire-footed monster that could tear them limb from limb. The wolves kept trying to torment the kitten, thinking she was just the right size for a between-meals snack. They baited her, trying to play cat and mouse. But this mouse could turn into a roaring terror, and it had become a daily event to have a whole gaggle of wolves go yelping by, a charging fury of a neko youkai roaring after them.

Howling pack and flaming neko disappeared into the woods, and Hideki chuckled to himself, digging his claws into the more sensible wolf who laid at his side. The brown wolf's tongue lolled out in a grin and he seemed to share the healer's amusement.

'Foolish young furballs.'

Speaking of foolish...

Hideki spotted one of his younger ookami brothers helping a raven-haired village girl pick up the packages she had dropped when she fled the stampeding wolves and neko. She appeared young, and pretty in a winsome way. Both of them were blushing and looking at their feet, and Hideki shook his greyed head over their maidenish behavior.

"Hmm. There might be more than one hanyou born this year..." He grinned to himself, watching the pair.

There was a commotion across from him, as one of the youkai women came stomping out of her hut, her eyes blazing and her scowl determined. She was an aging inu youkai, and the snobbery fairly oozed out of her. "I'm not going to stand this nonsense one more moment!" She actually shook her fist at Hideki, as if HE had been the one to cause all the commotion. He just grinned, showing his cracked fangs at the old curmudgeon. Lady Natsuko was an old fool, intolerant and unbending. He had overheard her scandalized whispers over the young girl whose pregnancy had brought her here at the Taiyoukai's order. She was a perfect example of just why inu youkai females were called "(witches)".

Natsuko marched her way across the mud-hardened street and over the bridge, her mouth set into a cramped little line of indignant fury. A gaggle of females followed in her wake, looking more rabidly curious for a spectacle than personally outraged, as the inu was. Natsuko sailed past him, giving him a withering look of scorn, and stalked her way to the miko's hut, which stood just behind the breeding shed. Both Kaede and Usagi were in that hut, attending Kagome, who was late into her sixth month of pregnancy, and Hideki had a grand view of what was going to become quite an enjoyable squabble.

He held his breath and waited in delighted anticipation.

Just as Natsuko raised her fist to rap sharply on the wooden door, something made the hair on the back of Hideki's neck stand straight up. Tensing under the eerie feeling that suddenly raced down his spine, the old wolf turned his head up to the sky. Under his clawed hand, the brown wolf's furred back shook with a growl that deepened by the moment.

The village was suddenly quiet, all eyes turned up toward the cloud-covered sky in sudden fear. They all seemed frozen---from the old woman who had bent down to pick up her grandchild, to the staring Ash-demons who had been hard at work thatching a roof. Ningen and youkai stared at the awesome spectacle that lit the horizon in roiling, fuchsia-tinged madness...

Trouble.


	64. Chapter SixtyThree: Kikyo's Wrath

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, etc. This story is for entertainment purposes only.

Japanese Words

imouta - younger sister

Shinidama-Chuu - Kikyo's white soul collectors

WARNING: Adult language, (limey) situations, and dark imagery. No one under 17 please!

Chapter Sixty-Three (Kikyo's Wrath)

Kagome turned onto her side in discomfort. Wrinkling her nose, she tried to rub away the itchy ache from her spine.

"Miko-sama, allow me." Suzume was suddenly there, putting down the small bundle she held, and kneeling by the pregnant woman's side. Kagome tried to smile in gratitude as the inu woman kneaded the small of her back, but it turned into a teeth-clenching grimace as another baby decided it was fun to bounce on her stomach.

"Ooh..." She let out her breath as Suzume gave her a worried glance out of pale blue eyes. Kagome waved the inu's concern away as she rolled back onto her pillows and lay like a sprawling turtle, grunting at the shift in weight. 'Gah! I feel like a hippo!'

She was more than ready for this pregnancy nonsense to be done with, but Kaede told her she still had two months and a handful of weeks to go. And it wouldn't get any easier. Kagome thought glumly that she might grow as big as a house by then.

Literally.

Suzume remained kneeling, and unwrapped the cloth-covered tray she had brought the young miko. Warm, appetizing aromas filled the air between them, and Kagome blushed as her stomach growled. She was so hungry all the time, and therein lay the reason she was as big as a house...or would be. But she was suddenly, ravenously, starving-man hungry.

"Thank you, Suzume-chan." She was so famished she didn't even grumble as the young inu youkai leaned across her to place the cloth-covering over her white yukata like a bib. Normally, Kagome hated being treated like a baby, but right now she was too damn hungry to care...

"Ooh!" Kagome hissed out in surprise, clamping a hand to her side.

THAT had been a bad one.

"Miko-sama?" Suzume asked softly. Although her voice was low, Usagi's sharp ears heard the deep worry threaded in that whispered query.

"What is it?" The osambasan said sharply, looking up from her own lunch. The midwife had been on edge all day, and the gravelly quality of her earthy voice was as sharp and sudden as rocks falling down a mountainside. Standing up abruptly, she stalked over to Kagome's side and dismissed Suzume with an imperious wave of her brown hand. Kaede looked up from kneeling over the hearth, the bowl and ladle in her hands forgotten as her gaze fixed on the young miko.

With a grunt, Usagi knelt and felt along Kagome's belly with blunt fingers, frowning.

Kagome stirred restlessly under the open palm, which smoothed over the round bulge of her kimono with persistence. Usagi hummed lightly under her breath, her eyes half-lidded as she concentrated. Kagome grimaced, and Usagi jerked her hand back as a particularly healthy jab from an over-active infant bucked her fingertips.

It was the midwife's turn to glare at Kagome's belly.

Kaede let out an amused grunt at the old midwife's sour expression. Kagome giggled, and tension seeped out of all of them.

Usagi sat back on her heels and crossed her arms over her expansive chest. "Inu." She muttered with a scowl. Kagome giggled again, and then grimaced as another pain hit her side.

"They are active today, child." Kaede left the fire to come and pat Kagome's shoulder.

"Eat." Usagi said abruptly. "With their stomachs full, they'll sleep, and I can check you then."

The smell of her cooling lunch was abruptly unappealing, and Kagome pushed the rich stew away with a hand suddenly grown tired. She felt faintly nauseous, and wondered where in the world her appetite had fled to.

Usagi and Kaede were both now peering at her with sharp concern.

"I'm not hungry any more." Kagome said lamely. She didn't want to tell Kaede that her carefully prepared stew---which the old miko had labored over for the better part of an hour, trying to make fish liver and eggs more appetizing to Kagome's choosy tastebuds—was now turning her stomach. She felt overwhelmingly tired and sluggish, and the active gymnasts who had taken up residence in her belly were for once quiet and still. She felt as if the air had grown heavy around her, and her spirit felt weighed down, as if it too, was under strain.

Tension crackled through the air, and then they heard a muffled shout from outside.

Kagome jerked, her breath hitching.

She couldn't have heard InuYasha right. It had been faint. It had been muffled. It couldn't be right. He couldn't have said it...couldn't have...

Kaede's grave eyes met hers, and a single word dropped from the older miko like a stone between them.

"Kikyo."

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Sango tickled him under a white ear, which twitched and flicked at her in reaction. Her laugh turned into a throaty sigh as warm lips and sharp teeth nipped playfully at the delicate pink curve of her own ear.

Her hanyou mate growled low in reply, and their bodies shifted like ripples of water as his lust gained new life and her own body awakened and hummed in response. She was taken by surprise---just as she had been taken by surprise from the village not long before. She had been furious at first, when InuYasha had plucked her up and hauled her off into the forest like she was just so much baggage, but then he had more than made up for it with his eager kisses once they were safely alone...

She had thought his need had been sated and spent in the wild abandon that had just swept them up into blissful joining, there on the chilled ground, his haori their only blanket. She had been basking in the golden glow of fulfilled aftermath, but she was more than willing to go another round. She could outlast him any day...

"Is that a challenge?" InuYasha growled into her mouth before kissing her senseless. Sango's hands swept up his bared back, marveling anew at the heat he gave off. She was starting to shiver in the chill snap of the air, the goose-bumps touching across her white skin. A warm tongue licked them away in damp heat and she sighed, for once content to let her worries and tension go.

It wasn't often they were able to get away from the crowded village and spend time alone...

Her eyes flew open as she felt InuYasha tense above her. She could not read his thoughts as he could hers, but she could feel the sudden tightness in his shoulders. Passion fled, and she opened her encircling arms. With the hanyou speed that always astonished her, InuYasha was on his feet, his nose twitching and golden-amber eyes wary. A chilling breeze sprung up, whipping the tousled silver hair over his shoulders and back.

Sango shivered. Something told her, a warrior's instinct, that it was trouble.

Dark trouble.

With scarcely a sound, she slid into the nearest brush, pulling her clothes in after her. She ignored the rose kimono she wore for everyday use and slid the black silk of her armor over her chilled skin. She secured her sword to her side, and stepped from the brush looking for her mate.

Tilting her head back, she spied him crouched in the nearest tree, already dressed in his Fire Rat robes and gripping the hilt of his Tetsusaiga. His back was to her, so that she could not see his eyes, but the tense line of his shoulders told her that something held him riveted.

Fixated.

"InuYasha?" Sango asked in a whisper.

He ignored her.

Something ate at her. Something---was there. Dark. Seething. Angry. She could feel the anger growing in strength as she recognized it for what it was. Trained as a slayer, she was also able to sense the presence of youkai, their aura, their menace. But this...this was...

"KIKYO."

Sango froze as InuYasha shouted that name in recognition.

In pain.

He sprang from his lofty perch, and was gone without a glance behind. A sprinkle of dead leaves were shaken from the tree limb left swaying with the power of his vanishing leap forward, and she watched them fall with frozen anguish, her heart tight in her chest.

He had loved her first, and most, of all.

Something snapped in the emotionally-timid taijiya, and her eyes narrowed. The white mark at the juncture of her throat and shoulder flashed. Without looking, she found the familiar strap of her Hiraikotsu where it leaned against the bole of a tree behind her. Fingers curled tight over the leather, and the heavy weight thudded against her back with a powerful jerk as she sprang after her vanished mate.

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He could feel her...sense her...smell her. It had taken him a long moment, to recognize her scent. He had to be sure. He had to be certain. Her scent was different. It had changed, as Kagome's had changed.

The faint sense of faded flowers, battered by rain and washed in sorrow, was but a bare whisper among a rage so poignant and bitter it even overwhelmed the decay of dusty time that had wrapped the dead miko's scent in clayed age.

'Kikyo.'

He recognized it now. Recognized it as something he had sensed only once before in the miko who had been his first love.

'Anger.'

He had smelled it when first confronted by her reawakened spirit, when the witch Urasue had first given life to the soulless clay body she had created from Kikyo's soiled ashes. Her avenging anger had beat at him in cloying waves as she accused him of betraying her, of killing her.

The roiling rage he had sensed her at that moment had stunned him.

But it was nothing compared to THIS.

"Kikyo!" He shouted again, his fingers white-knuckled on the hilt of his Tetsusaiga as he sped through the bare branches of the trees, back to the village where he knew she was. Twigs snapped as he brushed by them unheeding. His only thought was to find her.

Darkness was seething across to lay the sky in shadow as clouds rolled into angry turmoil. Light flared across them---not the pure, untainted flash of natural lightening, but the seething anger of malevolent Jewel shards, glowering fuchsia and tainted rose. He saw a thin white line up ahead, a ribbon encircling a gleaming globe of sacred energy that spun in maddened fury.

Bursting from the last ring of barren trees, InuYasha was airborne, jumping toward that sparking light. The red sleeves of his haori snapped in the wind of his passage, and the long length of his silver hair spread out behind him. Amber eyes glowing gold, he called out to her.

"KIKYO!"

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:Mad...maddened...we...mad...are...one...:

She could barely contain the rage that coursed through her as it fed her...strengthened her...

:Anger...death...rage...life...MINE...life...death...THEM...madness...lost...pure...anger...hate...them...blame them...KILL them...:

VENGEANCE.

She could feel him call out to her. She bared her teeth in a snarl of rage. Pitiful half-breed. How dare he even say her name! He was a part of her downfall. He was part of the blame. He was one of those whom she would seek revenge on. But first to die would be the very girl who had stolen her soul, her identity, her life.

"Miko!"

Fuchsia lightening crashed, and Kikyo laughed in delighted madness. They would feel her POWER. They would feel her RAGE.

'Die so that I might LIVE!'

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Shippo helpfully pushed the old inu (witch) out of the way as Miroku pushed open the wooden shutters that now served as Kaede's door. Natsuko gave a whispered shriek of half-rage, more-fright, and followed them inside, slamming the door shut, her breast heaving with indignation and a deepening sense of unfeigned terror.

Houshi and kitsune ignored the cowering lady in her tousled court robes, as did the harried Koharu who followed in their wake. "Lady Kaede!" Miroku jerked his head toward the door, and what lay outside as Shippo bounced right into his adopted okaa-san's arms. "Kagome!"

Kagome's face was white, her eyes wide, dark pools as she huddled in the corner amid her piled cushions. Trembling hands soothed the little fox cub with distraction as she stared at the tense faces around her.

Usagi snapped from a half-lidded trance, and said sharply, "That one is evil, and means the miko no good. She is pulling the dark powers to her."

Koharu gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. Her brown eyes swept to Kagome in horror.

The hurt of knowledge flashed deep in the old priestess's unpatched eye. For a moment, she bowed her head and whispered hoarsely, "Aye."

"Kaede-sama, it is Kikyo, but not Kikyo." Miroku said, his blue eyes dark and troubled. "There is that which is evil and mad..."

'Unholy...'

"She seeks Kagome." Shippo whimpered, burrowing his copper head into his mother's kimono with a sob.

"She seeks death." Usagi said bluntly, her eyes hard.

"Lady Kaede, we must confront your sister." Miroku said, his grip tightening on his staff. The rings jangled discordantly. "She has tapped into unholy powers."

"She is not of my sister. That out there is not anything of my sister." Kaede said with grim assurance. Although her voice was steady, the dark eye was bright with tears she would never shed. Calloused fingers closed over the bow and arrows the old priestess kept ever ready and close to hand.

"Kagome must be protected at all costs." Usagi said, her dark eyes bleeding slightly with youkai anger. "She cannot defend herself. Her sacred powers, and the youkai pups in her womb---"

Kagome gave an abrupt, sharp cry of pain, and doubled over. Shippo jumped free just in time as she folded around her belly, her small, white hands twisting in her kimono.

"Okaa-san!" The little kit wailed in the sudden quiet.

Thunder snapped and a screaming screech of thwarted rage and maddened evil overwhelmed them as darkness covered the village in heavy shadows. Koharu was at the young miko's side at once, murmuring worriedly. They all watched in frozen shock as Kagome shuddered, and a spasm rippled across the wide expanse of her belly. A small cry escaped white lips.

"What is she doing to Kagome?" Miroku snarled with sudden anger, his blue eyes flashing.

Usagi gave the young monk a look of disgust. "Nothing, unless you fail to protect her. Kagome-sama is going into labor."

"Kami protect us!" Koharu's fervent whisper spoke for all of them.

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Light flashed around him in dizzying colors, but InuYasha ignored it. He could feel the inner essence inside that fierce glower, could smell the rage that boiled in the middle of that storming mass of hate and anger.

'Kikyo!' He cried out, seeking her. Streaking lightening snapped out at him in erratic arcs. He dodged one from the left and dove under another.

"Kikyo! What in the hell are you DOING!" He shouted, whipping out Tetsusaiga to fling off yet another strike of infuriated wrath. He raised the sword's defense barely in time. A shower of sparks flew off of the fang's widened blade, making it ring with force.

"Do not deny me, InuYasha!" The voice came whipping out at him like the blasts of her lightening of perverted power. "You will die!"

"Kikyo! What has happened to you? Why---" His question was cut off as a series of sharp blasts were sent his way, this time with deadly purpose. He fended off three or four, but two snaking strikes came at once, and he was knocked from the air with the scattered backlash as Tetsusaiga's blade cut through them barely in time to save his life.

"I will not be denied!" Kikyo screamed from the middle of her fury. Her body was a dark shadow in the raging fuchsia light of her glowering aura of tainted power. "I will have my revenge!"

The breath heaved out of him as he crashed to the earth below. Villagers had scattered in every direction, many taking cover behind hastily slammed doors. Erratic strikes of raging lightening spat out, striking roof and tree and ground. There was a gurgling cry as an unfortunate man was caught running from the invidious menace above. His blackened corpse fell to the earth with a dull, sickening thud.

An ookami youkai, eyes red and fangs gleaming, launched himself from a half-crouch at the seething globe of raging power. He let out a howl as lightening seared across his unprotected side. He barely dodged death, and fell screaming. There was a keening howl as an Ash-demon, one of the guards sent by the Taiyoukai, bared his sharp, double-rows of teeth and joined the fray with two others.

Almost casually, the dark miko who had been his first love struck them out of the sky, their death cries keening into the shrieking wind that had been stirred by her churning rancor. Another ash-demon, who had been caught on the roof he had been repairing at the dark miko's abrupt appearance, threw back his head and erupted a ball of flame that sizzled and flared as it flew across the darkened skies, right to the heart of Kikyo's raging globe of maddened power.

InuYasha leapt out of the hole he had made in the turf, and watched in disbelief as Kikyo did nothing to ward off the sparking orb of orange flame that hurtled toward her. With growing dread, he heard her mocking laughter as the spinning ball of fire touched her fuchsia-furled aura and disappeared into insignificant wisps of smoke upon contact, dissipating across the infuriated glow that surrounded the shadowed form of the dead miko.

"How pitiful!" Kikyo belittled, her voice almost purring. "Is this all you have to offer?"

"Hiraikotsu!"

A spinning blur rent the sky overhead, and InuYasha's fangs gleamed in a grin as he heard Sango's cry from the far right.

The shadowed outline glowed with an inner, malevolent light until it was Kikyo who stood in the midst of her glowing aura of raging vengeance, and not some shadowed woman-form. Her lips curled in derision, and she made a cutting motion with her hand. The powerful boomerang, forged from the bones of defeated demons, stopped spinning in mid-air, arrested into immobility. Kikyo's wide-spread fingers jerked down in a sharp motion, and Hiraikotsu dropped like a stone to the ground far below.

Mocking laughter filled the shadow-fallen village.

"Damn!"

InuYasha growled, fangs flashing. His grip on his Tetsusaiga tightened until he heard his knuckles pop with strain. She toyed with them, and even Sango's weapon could not stand up to the strength of her wrath. Without thought, he was running across the torn earth, his body poised for attack. He launched himself at the miko who had once chained his heart to her side, the curving, sharper edge of his sword facing toward her. His own anger infused him, but even then a small voice in the back of his distracted mind cried out in silent, heart-torn anguish.

'Kikyo...why!'

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"What must we do, Kaede-sama?" Miroku demanded of the old miko as they stepped out of the small hut. Glowering rage sparked and flared above him, though he was distracted by the hoarse cry of the younger miko they had left behind them.

"Pray." The old priestess replied grimly. "Ye must help me to erect a barrier around Kagome. We must protect her at all costs. That thing that is not my sister must not be allowed to reach her."

Miroku's answer was to thrust his ringed staff into the ground directly in front of the miko's hut. He slid easily into a knees-out position, which the Shinto priestess silently echoed. Closing his deeply indigo eyes, he sought deep within himself for the inner peace to summon the sacred grace to his bidding. He ignored the screaming torment around him and the striking flares of lightening that danced colored spots behind his eyes. He pushed away his worry for Kagome, who labored before her time, too much before her time. He could not think of the fact that the child of a mortal woman would be too under-developed to live at only six and a half months from the womb.

'If only she were further along...another month even!'

His heart cried out for the poor girl who had gone through so much pain and heartache to labor now only for what would bring forth death to her unborn children. There was no way a human child could survive at only six months premature. Not in this harsh and fatal era.

What would it do to Kagome, to lose her unborn children?

Ruthlessly, he pushed the thought aside so that he could concentrate. What was important was keeping Kagome herself alive. Drawing up the sacred energy from deep within, Miroku bent his head.

And prayed.

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"InuYasha! You dare to attack ME?" Flaring crackles of energy snaked round the brightening anger of the dead miko's aura, and Sango's eyes blinked against the growing fuchsia-laced light as she tried to track the smaller shadow of her mate. Tetsusaiga glowed a bloody challenge, the molten scarlet fire of the barrier-breaking strength flowing along the curving length of the fanged blade. She could barely make out the small ribbons of white that swirled around the expanding, rose-tinged globe that formed Kikyo's wrath.

Desperately trying to make out the smaller form of InuYasha against the overwhelming light of maddened power that surrounded the dead miko, Sango's breath caught tight in her throat. A flaring orb built of seared lightning spat out from Kikyo's aura with deadly intent and raced headlong for the smaller, red shadow of the silver-haired hanyou.

She could barely make out the swing of Tetsusaiga as it met that menacing ball of raw hatred. The crimson blade rang out as it collided with the miko's fury. Crackling, fuchsia fire split into soundless waves of power as it seperated under the Tetsusaiga's impact. The very ground trembled under the whirling wave, felling trees like so many match-sticks and flattening more than one defender to the ground.

Sango's knees fell out from under her even as InuYasha's smaller form was blown back from the power of the dissolving wave. His angry shout reverberated across the village as his body was hurled backward, flying away from the dead miko who screeched with fury at her denied vengeance.

"DAMN!"

Orb after flaring orb was sent in a torrent of raining rancor after him as the tainted miko's wrath reached new heights. Explosive power ripped across the sky as she focused her vindictive fury solely on the silver-haired hanyou who dared to interfere.

Sango rolled to the side as a blackened stick of a tree---ripped from the ground with the unfolding waves of Kikyo's wrath---slammed into the earth only a foot beside her. She could hear the distant shouts and screaming cries of men and youkai as the very earth rippled under them. Her world became crashing thunder and flaring lights as she fought free of the rain of shattered debris that followed multiple explosions as Kikyo's rage rent across the forest and fields surrounding the tiny village. A small hiss of pain escaped her clenched lips as a sharp-edged rock cut across her cheek, and she wedged herself against the tree that had threatened to flatten her seconds before, her hands curled over her head as torn dirt and earth thudded down in a shower of scattering dust. Her heart tightened as she heard a wolf's howl cut off abruptly into silence as a flying rock struck weaker flesh.

A snarling roar ripped across the destruction, and Sango unfolded herself with a glad cry of recognition.

"Kirara!"

In one graceful movement, Sango rolled from the scant protection of the tree she had sheltered under and jumped onto the blackened wood. Heat bathed her skin as the neko youkai, orange flames spurting from her black paws, swooped down and rowled reunion. Reaching up, Sango's fingers tightened into creamy fur, and she was up, carried by the neko's powerful thrust from the ground. For a moment, she dangled in space, before Kirara's back arced, and Sango threw her legs up and over so that she could wiggle into a seated position.

"InuYasha! Where is InuYasha!" Her words were ripped aside in the winds of Kirara's passage as she circled high above the dusty swirl of dirt and debris kicked up by Kikyo's rage. Coughing, Sango twisted her head, trying to see. Kikyo's blinding aura of fuchsian madness appeared untouched---as did the small dome of wavy-blue energy that encircled and barricaded Kaede's small hut.

'Kagome...'

She was protected behind the sacred barrier, Sango could ignore the danger posed to her imouta for now. But where was InuYasha...

"INUYASHA!"

Sango's cry hurled across the tempest-strewn battlefield as her brown eyes widened in horror. InuYasha lay on the broken ground, the sword flung beyond his reach and dissolving into the rusted blade that hid its powerful fang out of InuYasha's hand. Even as she watched, the hanyou stirred and blinked dust from his amber eyes, growling as the breath came back to him.

But the wrath of the dark miko did not wait for InuYasha to recover...

"GO!" Kikyo's command sent forth her Shinidama-Chuu, as her aura swirled over the smaller white serpents that snaked around her, feeding them her power of raging hate. As Sango watched, two Soul-Collectors flew from the dark miko's side, elongating and expanding into monstrous size as they sped toward the unprotected hanyou below.

"Die, InuYasha!" The dark miko screamed, her command lending speed to her rage-born monsters.

"Kirara!" Sango pulled her katana free even as she urged the neko to hurry. Kirara snarled, her fangs expanding as she raced to overtake the giant Shinidama-Chuu who sped toward her hanyou mate with death intent...

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'How dare he threaten me!'

:Mad...kill...mad...anger...death...:

VENGEANCE.

Disgusting half-breed! He would pay for the anguish and torment he had caused her! She would destroy him and the disgusting whore who had stolen her pure soul and taken his love from her as well!

'Kagome!' How her hatred for the girl had expanded ten-fold when she, Kikyo, realized that the hanyou she had hoped to make human---and one whom she, in turn, might be able to love once the disgusting taint of his youkai-blood was drained from him by her wish on the Shikon no Tama—had grown to love the sappy slut who was her reincarnation.

The whoring thief who had stolen her chance at a second life...or death...with the young, silver-haired hanyou who had loved her in the true innocence of her youth, when she had been a pure miko, Guardian of the Jewel of Four Souls...

InuYasha was HERS, hers alone!

:Rage...anger...loss...madness...:

He had betrayed her...betrayed her dreams, betrayed her hopes, betrayed her life, and even betrayed the unkept promise of her love...

'I could have LOVED YOU!'

He would die now for what he had done to her---what they had all done!

Driven her, the pure and untainted miko, to the embrace of darkness and the seething madness of evil. If only...

If only he had loved her, and only her. If only Kagome, had not taken her soul and his hanyou heart. If only the Taiyoukai or Naraku could have killed the interfering slut, so that she, Kikyo, could reclaim her own soul once more. If only she could have used Midoriko's power and ancient soul for her own, to destroy the girl who had stolen so much from her...if only...

:Betrayed...betrayed...betrayed...betrayed...:

VENGEANCE.

"Die, InuYasha, and suffer an eternity of lonely abandonment in hell!" Kikyo called, the dark tides of madness engulfing the last shreds of her sacred aura. Now, there was only POWER, and the kernel of a dream that she would be strong enough to drive all youkai filth from the beautiful land of her birth and reshape its future under her unending Guardianship.

She had fed her Shinidama-Chuu with her hate, until they grew to terrible size. They would send the traitorous half-breed to hell, and she could turn her attention on the (witch) Kagome, who lay protected under a paltry barrier of sacred succor.

'She will die so I might LIVE!'

The dark power rose up in her, feeding on the rage and hate that fueled her existence on this earth. She could feel it rising, its lust for death and destruction only second to its need for ultimate power and strength. All would die for their treachery---

"No! InuYasha!"

Kikyo froze, her dark eyes widening as she saw the girl and neko below her racing to intercept her white Soul-Collectors. The cream-colored neko roared challenge. Turning its head around, sharp fangs sank into the neck of the nearest youkai, who screamed in whispered agony as its long, white body writhed in torment.

Silvered light gleamed off of the bared blade in the taijiya's hand as she sprang from her neko companion's back to strike at the hissing serpent who turned to retaliate. The sword slashed, and the white Soul-Collector reared back, jerking away. The girl hung grimly on as the serpent tried to dislodge her by rolling sideways, her black-clad form tiny compared to the giant length of shimmering white destruction.

'That girl...'

The deterrent of taijiya and neko was not enough, other white serpents of her Shinidama-Chuu were closing in on InuYasha where he lay knocked aside by the furious balls of dark energy she had sent careening into him. Wide jaws opened, rows of jagged teeth ready to engulf the hanyou---except that he rolled aside just one second before death would have taken him, and shouting curses, grabbed up his fallen sword.

Tetsusaiga flared to sudden life, and InuYasha spun around, splitting open the jaws of the white youkai who had sought his death. The fang arched up, and the dead corpse thudded to the ground at his feet. Amber eyes flashed gold, and he bared his fangs at the dark miko above them in an angry shout of pained betrayal.

"Kikyo!"

But she ignored him. More of her Soul-Collectors were descending upon him, and he could not defeat them all. He was too weak, too pathetic. What held her attention riveted was the taijiya who had rushed to his aid.

The neko rowled in pain as a second white youkai grabbed it up in reaching claws. Fire spurted from black paws as the neko arched in the tight hold, unsheathing its own claws to swipe at its captor. The huge head turned, red eyes glowing as it roared defiance.

"Kirara!" The taijiya called out to her neko, and a fourth Shinidama-Chuu used her distraction to close in with sharp jaws and reaching claws, pink eyes glowing red menace and the promise of a torturous death.

'Kirara...'

Memory sparked, and dark eyes narrowed as she realized just WHO this taijiya was.

Midoriko's daughter.

Midoriko had been protected by a white neko, a companion and guardian who had pledged her aid to the warrior-priestess of old...and whose descendants had protected the priestess's line throughout the passing generations...

Kikyo's dark eyes lit from within with an unholy light of comprehension.

That girl could lay claim to Midoriko's very soul...could provide a gateway into Midoriko's sacred power...

'Madness...desire...rage...desire power...desire vengeance...:

The taijiya realized her peril too late---she raised her sword only so that the attacking serpent could swallow sword and arm in grinding teeth. A scream of pain was rent from the slayer's lips, and her body was dragged away as the Soul-Collector flew up at Kikyo's silent summons to return. The girl tried desperately to free her trapped arm, pushing against the jaws that enclosed it with her free hand, even as her legs swung free, dangling over the earth far below.

The neko roared defiance, but its struggle would be futile. It could never reach the girl in time.

"SANGO!"

That cry was ripped from InuYasha's throat and thundered up from ground far below with a heart-wrenching cry of unending agony and anguish. The fang in his hand erupted in a crimson glow, matched by the red fire that flamed in the hanyou's golden eyes. Molten red mists whirled in front of the hanyou half-breed in a doubled-vision as Kikyo saw both his physical self and the demonic aura that was rising as his youkai blood kindled into raging life.

White fire flared at taijiya's throat as the black tangles of her hair whipped aside. A knife flashed into her palm, and she stabbed at the youkai who had her right arm gripped in its jaws---a futile effort as the Shinidama-Chuu ignored the pain in order to follow its dark mistress's silent orders to return.

Kikyo's unfathomable eyes narrowed on the white mark revealed on the taijiya's flesh. Realization burned through her, making her fingers clench into fists as she recognised it for what it was.

The mating mark of a youkai inu.

How the taijiya had gained such a mark from the despised hanyou did not matter. All that mattered was that she, Kikyo, now knew that InuYasha had survived her own curse, had been able to find someone who could return the contemptible feelings of an impure half-breed.

InuYasha's love was hers and hers alone! Hers to keep, to use, to return or to destroy!

That whore of Midoriko's seed would not survive Kikyo's justifiable wrath. How dare she! How dare any of them!

Hate and fury consumed the dark miko in a torrent of emblazoning anger as the fires of her loathing and betrayal flared out with renewed outrage to dazzle the paltry defenders who would dare thwart her.

:Madness...anger...rage...consume them...destroy them allll...:

Calling on the endless depths of her hatred and fury, Kikyo almost laughed as her body filled and reverberated with pure, unholy power.

All would die beneath her wrath!

VENGEANCE.

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Tetsusaiga throbbed in his hand, responding to the inu rage that gripped him. Blood curled through his vision, and he could feel the youkai reaching out for his human soul as the wakening blaze of his anger gripped him.

He could feel his mate's pain, feel her struggles to free herself.

The seething madness of the dark priestess above him was growing in strength and potency. He could feel her aura pulsing with renewed purpose, and knew that it sought his mate's death.

'NO.'

The growl heated through him, and his vision was robed in mists of red as his own fury crescendoed. His hands gripped the hilt of the Tetsusaiga, whose bloodied length matched the seeping crimson of his eyes. Long, silver hair frothed around him on unseen winds as he felt fang and claw lengthening to deadly poignancy. His youkai nature rose---and snarled.

He felt a sharp jerk on his soul, which was being buried beneath the inu that was asserting dominance over him. Tetsusaiga throbbed in his tightened grip, seeking for a moment to reclaim his soul and quell his nature. But the threat to his mate tipped the balance, and InuYasha was lost to the blood demon who rose to claim his body and soul.

...MATE. ...

He howled in the primitive speech of the inu, and flung himself upward toward the raging, seething mass of twisted hatred that threatened her.

Enemy...

Tetsusaiga flared in his claws, burning and blistering his palms with an intense pain as he fed the fanged blade with his raging, demonic aura. The sword flared and pulsed with crimson light, overwhelming in its intensity. Everything was a red haze of blood to the silver-haired youkai whose eyes were like burning coals as the purpled streaks slashed across his cheeks.

Blood...

He would bathe in it, soak in it, feed on it...

"InuYasha!"

He ignored his mate's anguished cry, ignored the burning agony in his hands as his claws curled around the hilt of Tetsusaiga as it pulsed with blood-raging power, ignored the taunting laugh of the dead miko who gathered her own power to her to fling it at him like a thousand bolts of lightening unleashed in one summoning.

"Pitiful half-breed! Live in hell!"

The inu snarled in reply.

The dark priestess raised her hands and flung them wide, sending her dark globe of fuchsian power forth to destroy all in its path with uncontrolled scorn and loathing.

His body turned in a spinning arc, the curve of Tetsusaiga's blade gaining impetus and fury as crimson fire danced along its length. Silver tangles crept across his vision as he snarled his consuming wrath in challenge, incapable of speech. The blazing globe of malignant power bathed him, and he brought the sharp edge of the fanged blade to meet it.

Rage touched rage, and the world exploded.


	65. Chapter SixtyFour: Barrier

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters, etc. This story is for entertainment purposes only.

WARNING: Some dark imagery, no one under 17 please!

Japanese Words

kochou - butterfly

Chapter Sixty-Four (Barrier)

Kikyo screamed.

Torment like she had never known danced along her pale form, burning with a cold fire that raced along the surface of her skin and coursed through her blood like molten lava. A desperate sob burst forth as her dark eyes widened into tortured orbs.

"Help...me..." She whispered, calling to her Shinidama-Chuu. They twined around her, taking her up, though their touch burned across her skin like thousands of tiny needles pressing in on her. Blackness overwhelmed her, and she knew nothing more as her clayed body was pulled free of the fires of demonic rage by the white youkai who wrapped their snaking figures around hers, bearing her dying flesh away.

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"Sango! InuYasha!"

The rings on Miroku's staff clanged discordantly as he sped across the torn earth, looking for signs of the hanyou and taijiya. Shippo, riding on his shoulder, tested the air with his sensitive nose, and pointed across the monk's jaw toward the far left.

"There, Miroku!"

Miroku spied the dust-streaked fur of the cream-colored neko where she crouched over a still, black form.

"Sango!"

Kirara's large head came up, and she blinked glowing red eyes as the houshi hastened to reach the taijiya's side. The huge neko youkai made a wuffing noise of reassurance as Miroku fell to his knees beside the sprawled slayer---dropping his staff in the dirt beside him---and turned her over with gentle hands, blue eyes deep with concern.

Shippo hopped off the monk's shoulder and onto the neko's back. Green eyes widening into fear, he asked plaintively, "Miroku, is Sango hurt real bad?"

Sango stirred at the kitsune's piping voice, and dark lashes fluttered on pale cheeks. Miroku's held breath sighed out in a silent prayer of gratitude to the kami as the taijiya blinked open pain-filled brown eyes.

"InuYasha..." She croaked, her broken, bloodied arm cradled to her breast.

"Damn it, you hentai..." There was a hoarse cough from behind them. Miroku turned his head around in surprise as a battered, silver-haired hanyou lurched up on unsteady feet, using the rusted blade of his dissolved Tetsusaiga like a crutch.

"Get...your..._cough_...hentai hands off...my mate..." InuYasha staggered forward, and nearly fell. "Damn it!"

Kirara purred.

"InuYasha..." Sango sighed, her eyes closing as her lips curved in a soft smile.

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A small pebble quivered as if an unseen wind touched it. But the wind had died, where usually it howled and gusted around the steep cliffs and jagged teeth of this blackened range of bare earth and rock. For a minute space of time, a mere breath of tense waiting, the pebble was still---and then it trembled once more.**  
**

Another breath, and then the pebble shuddered. Another, and it shifted. The tiniest bit, the smallest length, and then it stilled  
once more.

But the quiver came again, and again, and the pebble shifted slowly, inevitably, toward the edge of the cliff. In a span of breaths, it had moved toward the periphery of up-thrusted rock, where it paused, teetering on the edge into dark oblivion. All time stood still, as if the very breath of the world waited for decision...

And then it fell.

With a crack as loud as snapping thunder, it rattled down the mountainside, pulling others of its fellows after it, until small pebbles and rocks showered down in a clatter and hiss of falling earth. The ground shuddered, the rhythmic stamping of feet pulsing through the very bones of the mountains in which the dark hanyou laired. Loose sand and gravel poured down in a hissing, slithering rain as the repetitive thunder throbbing underground increased, as the large war hosts inexorably drew nigh.

The lone pebble ricocheted off of the last crag, and shattered against the harsh stone of the mountain's base. The wind, which had remained still throughout the pebble's descent, suddenly sprang to life and howled in circling, maddened eddies through the blackened waste that surrounded the dark castle where it nestled in the jagged teeth of the range. The winds wailed eerily into the cloud-covered dawn like the souls of the lost were held tortured and moaning in its grasp.

The ground was still, though the air had grown heavy and chill.

The Taiyoukai had arrived.

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"We must go." Sango said, her voice hitching as she cradled her broken arm to her chest. The pain seeped through her, making her temples pound, but she pushed it aside. She knew, without knowing or caring how, that they must follow the dead miko who had fled the village, wrapped in the protective hold of her white Soul-Collectors.

InuYasha growled low in the back of his throat, but said nothing. He knew.

"You are not going anywhere." Miroku frowned down at the composed taijiya, who leaned against the cream-colored neko for support. "Not with that, anyway." He pointed to her bloodied limb, broken by the powerful jaws of Kikyo's minions.

"He's right, girl." A gravelly voice intruded. They looked up at the old ookami with surprise. He limped up to them, a bag of healing salves swinging in one hand, a stout stick in the other. "The bone must be set, and the wounds cleaned out ere they fester."

A trio of wolves, following the old healer faithfully, sat down on their haunches, tongues lolling out.

"We must follow." Sango replied stubbornly. Miroku crossed his arms over his dark robes and fixed her with a penetrating stare. After a long moment, he nodded once in sharp agreement.

"I understand."

"You've all lost your minds." The old wolf, Hideki, growled at them. InuYasha scowled back.

_"That_ thing was hurt by _that_ thing." He pointed from the clouded sky where Kikyo had hovered and was now eerily empty, and then toward the scowling hanyou. _"She_ will need time to heal...as will _you."_ He pointed at Sango, his dark eyes piercing.

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Red eyes gleamed in the mask of the white baboon. Sensual lips curved in a dark smile of promise.

It was time.

"Come, children." The dark voice purred. "We must prepare while the dog is distracted by our barrier. It will not keep him long, but the delay will cost him dearly in the end."

With a clawed hand, he summoned his aerial minions to his side. Whirring wings and glowing crimson eyes surrounded the white baboon as he turned a last look on his eldest child. "Kanna. You know what you must do."

The white child of the Void bowed deeply, saying nothing.

Naraku nodded, satisfied that she, at least, would not fail him. Seething purple mists rolled from under the white furred robes until they engulfed his body in a miasmic fog of dull black clouds shot with streaks of violet menace. The insects closed in around him, and with a swirl of poisonous vapor, the dark hanyou departed.

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"She is still a threat." Sango said simply, ignoring the throbbing pain in her arm. "Kagome---"

"Concern ye naught with Kagome, child." Kaede's voice rose gruffly from behind the old wolf's shoulder. All eyes turned to the weathered visage of the elderly miko as she gingerly stepped around the three wolves who sprawled behind the grey-haired ookami healer who was helping her tend the wounded in the village. There were many, too many, and the tiredness weighed down on Kaede's troubled mind. Strengthening her voice, she advised them. "Kagome will keep. The task before ye is to find that thing who is not Kikyo and destroy it lest she seek to join forces with Naraku. Given time to regain her strength, she may prove too strong to defeat. Ye must find her, and quickly."

Sango nodded in full agreement. Miroku cast a sharp look at InuYasha, but the expression in his amber eyes was unreadable.

Hideki growled. "Are you a fool, woman? That girl cannot go with a broken arm and unhealed wounds. She is not youkai, she cannot heal herself."

The priestess's single black eye narrowed on the ookami healer. "Ye think too much of your youkai blood, wolfling."

With that barb, the old miko gingerly knelt by the taijiya's side. Her calloused fingers lightly touched across the surface of Sango's skin. Sango grimaced, and then deliberately blanked out the pain as Kaede took the wounded limb in strong hands. A pale glow misted from the priestess's palms and surrounded the slayer's arm in sacred energy. Calling her small gift of power to her, the old miko fed her strength into the slayer, willing the bone to knit and the flesh to heal unbroken. The warmth of sacred energy transferred to the taijiya, and Kaede felt light-headed and dizzy as her unselfish gift of healing drained her strength. Murmuring a prayer of thanks to the kami, the old priestess allowed her hands to fall from the taijiya's arm with weary detachment.

Sango blinked in astonishment, flexing the pale, unscarred flesh with surprise.

Kaede swayed with exhaustion, and it was Hideki's worn hands that curved around the old miko's white shoulders to give her support. There was a note of respectful awe in his chiding voice. "You have exhausted yourself, woman."

Kaede only sighed, too tired to reply.

Miroku gave the old miko a deep bow of respect. "Lady Kaede..."

She waved the monk's words aside as InuYasha abruptly stood and grunted, "Thanks, Baba." He pulled the slayer up to his side and nudged Kirara with one foot. "We going, cat?'

Kirara rumbled assent, and rose from her crouch. Twin tails lashed, and the rings on Miroku's staff sang out as he stepped forward. "I am going with you." He said simply.

"Me, too!" Shippo's little hands held tightly to the creamy fur of the neko's neck should someone try and argue with him. InuYasha looked ready to do just that, but Kaede stopped him.

"Go. All of ye may be needed." She made a waving gesture with her hand, her careworn countenance closed.

"Come on, then." InuYasha abruptly turned and hoisted his mate onto the neko's back. He gave her a quick kiss, and growled at the houshi to keep his hentai hands to himself. Miroku merely grinned, and settled himself behind the taijiya with familiar grace. He feigned a look of hurt when the scowling hanyou handed over Hiraikotsu. With boned boomerang and ringed staff in both hands, he would have none free to grope with---which had been InuYasha's intention.

Hideki chuckled in Kaede's ear at the monk's chagrined expression, and then they were up and away as Kirara leapt skyward, her black paws bursting into sparking flame. InuYasha paused to secure Tetsusaiga to his waist, and then he gave Kaede a long look out of golden-amber eyes.

With a running leap, he was after the flying neko, his silver hair swirling with the speed of his passage.

"Why did you deceive them, old woman?" Hideki demanded, even as he used surprisingly strong arms to help the priestess to stand. "And send the young fox? Should he not be near while his okaa-san lies in peril?"

"Ye know nothing, old fool." Kaede replied, short of breath. "Kagome has little need of distraction right now, and Shippo of more. What help could the young one be to her?" She would have pushed away from the ookami's assistance, but loathed as she was to admit it, she needed it. The healing had cost her more strength than she could have predicted.

Kaede's dark gaze grew troubled. "Kagome must hoard her strength. She will need it to survive the dark hours that lay ahead."

Hideki's eyes were shrewd. "So the great osambasan could not stop the miko's labor. Her pups come, before their time."

"Aye." Kaede said, too tired to bate words with the ookami.

"And you said nothing to them of this." Hideki shook his head at her, even as he lent his shoulder for support as they hobbled back across the torn fields and turf toward the village where the young girl lay in pain, striving to hold back life too young yet to live.

"They, too, will need their strength in these dark hours." Kaede said, her voice low, her gaze somber.

"As will we all." Hideki muttered, calling his wolves to his side.

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The barrier lay over the castle and part of the black mountains that surrounded it like an overturned bowl. Perfectly circular, its surface smooth and glassy, the colors wavered from deepest purple and grayed midnight to crimson-touched fuchsia as its power fed and flowed in eddies of expanding, whirling ripples and waves.

None dared touch that evil's surface, lest they die in agony and pain from its malignance. Spear and sword edge could not pierce it, arrows strung and flown against it bounced off like flung twigs. Flame dispersed over its smooth surface without scorching and youkai acid was merely absorbed like water in parched desert sands.

The allied armies of the Taiyoukai stood restless, staring at the barricade that barred their way with impatience and varying degrees of ire. A few cast wary glances up toward the skies and the black mountains that extended on either side, fearful lest the treacherous Naraku use this barrier as a mere distraction to attack from other quarters. More than a few turned eyes to the gleaming white figure who had brought them forth to confront the filthy hanyou in his own lands, wondering what now he would do.

Giving voice to their unspoken question, Jaken hurried to the Lord's side. His own beloved Staff of Skulls had done little to pierce the rippling, miasmic wall, which daunted the staunch little green servant of the Taiyoukai more than he would care to admit or claim.

"What now, me Lord?" Jaken swiveled his neck in a most uncomfortable position so that he could address the Taiyoukai properly.

Ah-Uhn hovered just above and to the left of the little green imp, pale blue flames spurting from the dragon's feet keeping it aloft. Lord SesshouMaru's white robes slithered in the slight breeze, which also feathered the long silver-white hair he wore unadorned down his back. Golden eyes focused solely on the barrier that kept him from the one he sought, but his still expression was as unreadable as ever.

"M-Master?" Jaken stuttered, feeling slightly frightened in the face of SesshouMaru's apparent lack of action. His quavering voice drew other eyes, which grew tense as the Taiyoukai continued to hover, expressionless.

With a curt, unexpected shift, the Taiyoukai's single hand released the reins he held and motioned forward, sharp white claws gleaming in the chilly grey dawn. Jaken wasn't the only one to jump back in fear at the abrupt movement. More than one was suddenly reminded of just how deadly Lord SesshouMaru could be...

Streams of defusing light swept past the staring allies, glittering pale golden and milky pearl. With flitting wings, hundreds of tiny kochou swarmed over the barrier's surface, surrounding it in tiny dots of pale brilliance against the swirling purple-black wall. They hovered just out of touch of the glassy surface, aligning themselves along the perimeter in equal distance from each other, the faint sounds of their high-pitched humming a whisper across the silent battlefield.

_'What can_they_ do?'_ Jaken wondered, feeling impatient with the nagging fear that made his heart beat faster in his chest and made his little claws tighten on the wooden shaft of his Two-Headed Staff. Those useless, flighty little things were nothing more than convenient messengers---what was me Lord thinking by sending them to cover the round circumference of Naraku's defensive wall? Did me Lord hope that their pearly champagne light might act like a candle and reveal some hidden weakness in the dark, eddying surface of the barrier? It was a stupid thought---the butterflies were too few, their light too weak, spread out as they were across the wide expanse of swirling miasma...

The Taiyoukai's golden eyes narrowed on the impenetrable barricade, and Jaken felt like shrinking in on himself with the horrible fright and doubt that touched him. _'Me Lord is as lost and confused as I am! He has no clue how he might break the barrier, and we are sitting ducks out here, just waiting to be destroyed!'_

He could not help the tiny, despondent moan that issued involuntarily from his beak, though he clamped a three-fingered hand over it in mortification and looked around with wide yellow eyes to see if anybody had taken note of his treacherous qualms.

But all eyes were focused on the Taiyoukai, and the fact that he now grasped the hilt of his sword, and was drawing it forth. A shaft of silvery light gleamed across the shining surface of the bared blade, and Jaken gasped in recognition, heedless of how he might sound.

_'Tenseiga!'_

But then fear-filled uncertainty ate at him again, and his little shoulders fell. He could feel a tear burning in the edge of one bulging yellow eye, and he wished fervently that it was Tetsusaiga, not Tenseiga, that the Lord held unsheathed in his hand. Tenseiga was useless here, it was Tetsusaiga that was capable of destroying barriers, not this useless piece of pot-metal, only good for healing, focusing the energies of...

_'Focusing the energies of...'_

Jaken stared with dawning awe as it finally hit him what, exactly, the Lord was planning to do with the useless weapon, fanged gift of his powerful father. The inu strength of InuTaisho was inherent in both the swords made from his fangs, and Tenseiga's strength was not to be counted lightly.

_'But Tenseiga can only transfer life, it cannot destroy---'_

But the kochou waited, hovering in a latticed barrier of their own, each butterfly acting like a pinpoint of light in a webbed net over the dark shadow beneath them.

And life was power.

Poisonous green mists were pouring out from the Taiyoukai's palm, as he focused his aura into the weapon he held aloft in his hand. Misty vapors swirled over the exposed, silver blade, wreathing it in wraithlike swirls that seemed to grow into pale green wisps of flame, until the sword hung wreathed in ghostly, green fire. The golden eyes of the Taiyoukai remained narrowed, though he raised the flaming green sword, whose inner blade now glowed intensely white with the power fed into it, and pointed it straight toward the barrier that kept them from Naraku.

Jaken flinched as green radiance shot from the blade's point, straight to the fuchsia-violet barrier, and the milk-pearl butterfly who hovered just above it. The kochou's milky light was swallowed up in green fire, which shot out in all directions to encompass the other small forms who wreathed the barricade on all sides. The green power raced from butterfly to butterfly, forming tangling webs as each of them focused the Lord's power with their own small strength. A net of lacing jade-green energy overlaid the dark surface of the shadowed barrier, and the Lord uttered a single, quiet order.

"Now."

The white fire that had been Tenseiga's center shot forward, to follow that lacing pattern of green light. Its glow grew to such brilliance as it touched each kochou that Jaken had to duck his head and hide his watering eyes behind one raised arm and the scant brown protection of his dark robes.

There was no explosion, no pulsing shattering of power like he had half-expected and braced for. Instead, it seemed the searing white power, traced with flashes of shimmering green brilliance, merely melted back the barricade that had stood so fixed between them and their goal.

'Naraku.'

The light faded as the barrier dissolved, and Jaken blinked his eyes, trying to regain his vision as the kochou dispersed, their task done. By the time the little imp was finally able to see, Ah-Uhn was already leaping forward into the black-rimmed valley that was now exposed, the castle a mere pinpoint of grey stone and wood atop a flat-topped table of the steep-sided mountain straight ahead.

The Taiyoukai's voice raised in a single word which thundered across the valley and echoed round the circling black mountains Naraku called home.

**_"VENGEANCE!"_**

The roar that followed as wave after wave of avenging allies snatched free their sword, spear or bow swelled behind him, making the very earth tremble beneath their thundering feet as they rushed forward to free their wrath in fury and vengeance.

The final battle had begun.

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A/N: Brahahaha! Another cliffie! 'evil grin' A few thanks to the many people who have encouraged and stayed with this little story…

Vyncent: As always, darling, I am blessed by your friendship. Congratulations on winning animedefiance's award for Best Angst. Her story, "The Unworthy One", can be found on affnet and A Single Spark, and is worth a look-in!

Fairia: Keep the pocky, I want the Raidon. And where is my Lemons! Hentai needs refueling badly! Thanks for your help on "The Source of Solace" (another fic I'm working on…)

Krysie: I've read all my books, too, which made me write, lol. Thanks for the compliment!

Lessa: Yes, Anne McCaffery figured prominently in the Gathering. Love her books.

Love Me Princess Kagome: 'mysterious smile' You have a good grasp of the developing bond between Sess & Kag.

Sesshyslovergrl: I have to be cautious of putting out direct links to my stories on other sites, especially as I cannot be certain of everyone being over 18. I do not know why you have not been able to access my stories on other sites. My author id is different on other sites: at adultfanfiction dot net and mediaminer dot org I am known as YoukaiFate, on A Single Spark I am simply Fate. Hopefully that will help. If not, please email me directly at Inufanasha (at) aol dot com.

Amanda: Thank you for the Harry Potter compliment, it gave me the warm and fuzzies!

Hellspixie18: 'innocent smile' Death threats? Lol!

Sarah Yes, Sango and Inuyasha are paired in this fic as well. Thank you for your encouragement!

Megan Consoer: You have been so faithful with your encouragement and support. Thank you so very, very much!

Additional Thanks go to: Jingko, Icygirl2, Sessies Personal Priestess, Red, Bookreader999, Crystal Tears of the Moon, Yuya-sama, Hermonine, Tessie-fanfic, Inugirl, Jessie, Yoshiko K., Jenna, Jessica, Tsuki Yume, Dark Paine, Sesshys Jaded Samurai, Rin-chan, Linda, Cocla, Ever-After, Mystic Shadows, Faelaine, Twiddledee, Mystic Hanyou and White Tiger Princess

And last but never least, my trueheart and best friend, Caile. If it weren't for you, I would never have written a single word.


	66. Chapter SixtyFive: Menacing Shadows

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters, etc. This story is for entertainment purposes only.

**WARNING: Dark imagery, no one under 17 please!**

_A/N: Special thanks to Vyncent and DarkQueen76 (among many others!) who kept asking when I would update. Eternal gratitude to Fairia, who helped me write of eagles and eyesight and everything else. (Fate)_

_Japanese Words_

_washi - eagle_

_uma - horse_

**Chapter Sixty-Five (Menacing Shadows)**

"Water? Hot water?" Lady Natsuko gaped at the young woman like a fish caught out of it.

"Water." The young woman, whose red hakama and white kimono had been tied loosely over her expanding girth, was hollow-eyed and worried. But her dark brown eyes held a hint of steel in them as she summarily ordered the inu lady out of the hut with a wan excuse.

Drawing herself up and regaining her exalted composure, Lady Natsuko sniffed disdainfully. Thin nostrils flaring in contempt, she sneered, "You expect _me_ to---"

Her haughty protest was cut off by an inarticulate cry of pain behind them. Natsuko's blue-grey eyes widened and she made a whining sound of pity in the back of her throat---a sound she would never admit to, ever after, but one which was echoed by the young inu who hovered beside Usagi. It was the instinctive stirrings of Natsuko's inu nature, fighting past her haughty control to whine anxiously in the face of another's pain.

The midwife knelt between the miko's thighs, and the clean cloths she pulled away were sullied with bright spots of fresh blood. Natsuko's nose twitched as the sharp, metallic scent penetrated the thick stuffiness of the oven-warmed hut. She flinched as the young girl who lay on the sweat-sodden pallet tilted back her head and groaned sharply with the pain that wracked her weak form anew.

Natsuko did not know enough of humans and their pitiful strength to know what, exactly, was wrong. Her own kind whelped their pups the inu way…in the true form of their canine natures. The instincts of birth soon overwhelmed the expanded limit of their pained awareness of the process, and Natsuko bore only a faint memory of the pain that might have accompanied her own sons' birth, so long ago in the past now that it was but limited to a warm haze of realization in the aftermath that they had arrived, healthy and sound, and of her former lord, coming with pride to her side to boast how big they were, both Tansei and Genjuu.

Her wandering attention was snapped back to the present when the young miko sobbed aloud. "Why…it _hurts_…it…"

Usagi made soothing sounds of murmuring nonsense to ease the laboring onna's fears. Suzume, the young inu who knelt by the girl's side, was mopping at the fevered brow. Sweat had whorled the girl's black bangs into tangled disarray across her cheeks, and the dark circles under the young miko's eyes were echoed by the lines of tensed worry in her attendants.

"Why does she labor so?" Natsuko whispered loudly in the other onna's ear. The freckle-faced woman started, and shook her head sharply, motioning the inu female to precede her outside the fire and lamp-lit hut.

Natsuko, for once uncaring of following the bidding of a mere ningen, welcomed the sharp sting of the chilled, but fresh, air outside. Unconsciously, she breathed deeply, allowing the smoky stuffiness of the cot's interior to leave her lungs. With cleared head and sharper tongue, she turned again to the onna, whose name, if she remembered aright, was Koharu.

"Girl, answer me. Why does the woman pain? It is unusual for an inu's birth to be so…" Natsuko waved her hand in the direction of the hut they had just exited. A choked cry escaped the wooden confines behind them, and the lady frowned.

"The first child is breech, and Kagome's hips are narrow." Koharu said, the strain in her voice matching the darkened worry in her eyes.

Natsuko's eyes narrowed. "Breech, you say?"

"Yes, Lady. The babe is coming feet first."

"I know what it means, you insufferable chit. That happens, from time to time. But what does the osambasan intend to _do? _Turn him?"

"It's too late for that." Koharu's shoulders sagged, her voice soft with defeated sorrow.

"So then the girl must just get on with it, pain or no pain. She must bear down and deliver him, as soon as possible---lest the boy be born dead, denied the air he needs in too long a passage from the womb." Natsuko said irritably, smoothing the wrinkles from her silken over-robes with sharp jerks of annoyance. The girl's cries, though muffled outside the cabin, were getting on her strained nerves.

"Time does not matter. He will be born too weak to survive." Koharu said with a resignation that made Natsuko's thin lips curl in derision.

"Stupid girl! What---"

The ningen closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as if to gather patience to answer the irate lady with. The sadness in her dark eyes for Kagome's fate had turned the brown depths nearly black. "Lady Natsuko, a human woman carries her child for forty weeks. I know that the inu bear their young much sooner, but a human child cannot live if born too early. At seven or eight moons, perhaps, it might have a chance, but not when it is aged but six and a half moons---"

Natsuko's lip curled into a full sneer. How pathetic these ningen were in their weakness!

Koharu's dark eyes flashed in anger. "Kagome's children are too under-developed. They will _die_, you obnoxious bitch, and I don't think you find the idea too distressing!"

Natsuko's fine, penciled brows flew up at the loathsome accusation in the girl's harsh voice. Her first instinct was anger at the girl's audacity, and the cold, grey-blue eyes misted faintly with a touch of crimson outrage before she collared her more primitive instinct beneath the swamping bite of her disdain.

"You stupid, stupid girl! What makes you think the pups are too young to live? They are _inu, _not ningen." The lady used every nuance of reproachful sarcasm she had in her skilled repertoire, and her biting voice fairly dripped with scornful contempt for the species.

"They are hanyou," Koharu gritted her teeth. "Which means they are half-human. Which means that they are not grown enough to live outside their mother's womb---"

Natsuko's eyes bled now, as she unleashed her growing irritation with the girl's continued ignorance. These arrogant ningen with their arrogant presumptions! How dare they presume to know an inu's significance! "Incompetent fool! You understand nothing! Can you not scent out their growth? The pups are to be born _now, _and your foolish insistence on the unnecessary might cost them their lives!"

"What mean ye, Lady?"

Both women turned in surprise at the gravel-worn interruption. The old miko---who had drained her strength in healing the taijiya, and had been taken away after to rest and regain her strength by the growling insistence of the wolf healer, Hideki---now stood swaying on the path, her wrinkled features pale, the dark circles under her tired eye telling of exhaustion held off by strict will alone.

"Lady Kaede!" Koharu immediately rushed to the old priestess's side, her eyes anxious now for the old woman's fading strength. The miko paid the girl no mind, her attention fixed on the indignant inu.

"Tell me," the miko's gaze pierced the affronted inu. "What mean ye?"

Natsuko's smile was acidic.

_ooOOooOOooOOoo_

The lady awaited the Seventh Lord's command. Talons tensed upon her rocky perch as a slight breeze ruffled across her mantling wing-feathers. With a sharp gaze, she surveyed her warriors, pleased to see many of them with gaping beak, a bird's mimicry of a man's grin. They were eager, they were ready.

It was _this_ waiting that seemed the longest. All the careful planning and complicated maneuverings in the world might not last once talon was joined and spear was cast. Once the arrows flew, singing their sad, hissing song of dread, only instinct and learned movements---ruthlessly drilled into them until the movements themselves were instinctual as well---would ensure life, and victory, or a lonely, plummeting death to the unforgiving earth below. Her warriors were ready, but she would hold them back until the horselord's signal. They were the Taiyoukai's feint, his hidden ally. The dark hanyou would not expect the Taiyoukai to have any aerial strength…the pitiful ploys of the dainty kochou would be no match for the winged serpents the baboon had rumored at his command.

Lusaidh stirred restlessly as she watched the dust-covered forms below. Lord Shichiro, when he gained the second rise, should flail the signal that would send them springing forth. His uma soldiers, a mix of both horse and youkai forms, were completely distinct to her sharp-eyed gaze in the dust their swift passage raised. Her eyes, like those of her lesser eagle brethren, could see through water, let alone mere clouds of rising grit.

Lord Shichiro knew best how to use his men, and sent them in swirling waves of feint and skirmishing attack. While the first wave was sent cresting back like the receding tide on a sandy beach, the second was hard on their heels, aiming and firing as quickly as they could. The impressive tactic provided a continuous barrage of the deadly, little arrows that were the uma's preferred weapon, and wreaked havoc on the enemies' braced lines.

For once the barrier had dissolved, the shadowy forms of Naraku's army had appeared like a darker, seething mass at the base of the mountain. The baboon's forces consisted of a variety of demons, some of them quite fair and appearing less formidable than their uglier companions. Many were reptilian or insectoid in nature, though there were a smattering of others whose natures were more mammalian, though even the sharp eyes of an eagle could barely make out their myriad forms to individual identity…

Lusaidh hissed, her wings mantling and talons tightening on the upthrust of black rock she clung to. The washi around her stirred angrily as the saw the first wave of Naraku's serpents take to the air, their sinuous forms writhing across the darkened skies with wings that seemed too small for the length of their snake-like bodies. Behind them rose a fearsome roar, and the very earth trembled beneath them.

_'Dragon!'_

Before she could stop it, the anger welled up, hot and thick, and all but choking her in its intensity. Tilting her head back, Lusaidh erupted forth with a challenging scream of her own. Her clan had suffered untold horrors at the claws of ravaging dragons in pasts so buried in mystery now there was just the deep enmity that seethed through their very raptorial blood.

The winged serpents had driven back the successive waves of skirmishing horselords, and Lord Shichiro had lost the ground he had hoped to gain. He could not give signal now, and the winged snakes were pursuing the fleeing uma, harrying them back to the front lines with devastating effect. Attacked from above, on their weakest side, the strong little arrows could do little damage to an enemy that just writhed out of the way. Screams of pain broke out over the uma's ranks, and Lusaidh erupted from her perch with a mighty beat of her wings, her screaming command screeching across the tumultuous field.

_'Damn the signal, we attack_ now!'

Keyaws of angry challenge, fiercely shrill in the cold, morning air, rose from the throats of her warriors as Lusaidh folded her wings into a darting dive for the enemy far below. Speeding to the earth, she aimed for the writhing body of a snake about to bite into the neck of an imprisoned horse youkai. The horse whinnied in terror, struggling to free itself as the sharp, foot-long fanged mouth opened with a triumphant hiss.

Lusaidh's talons closed on the snake's tail, sinking through the tough skin and into the meaty flesh beneath. She _yanked, _whipping it aside just as the jaws closed reflexively, snapping shut in a click of teeth mere inches from the uma's left shoulder. The serpent snarled in hissing anger at the attack, and twisted upon itself to try and bite at the soft feathers of her underbelly. Inured to such tactics, the golden eagle neatly ripped off a delicately-veined wing as she released her burden on high.

The snake coiled in upon itself, spitting acid in her direction in a last attempt to inflict some type of damage. Neatly avoiding the venomous strike, Lusaidh back-winged and watched with grim satisfaction as her foe fell screaming to the earth far below, its one remaining wing beating futilely to allay its fatal spiral. Assured of the dark serpent's demise, the eagle youkai swung on a wingtip to catch sight of the next.

There was a angry scream above her, and Lusaidh danced back as another serpent fell with torn wing and broken spine to the earth below. His last launch of venom sprayed wide, however, and acid dripped onto her unprotected shoulder. The pain was horrific, but only fueled the lady's wrath. With eyes glowing bloody reprisal, she arrowed her body on her next target with screeching challenge.

_ooOOooOOooOOoo_

_"Fall back to the lines!" _Shichiro bellowed at his men, who were all too unwilling to heed his command. _"Fall _back, _damn you!"_

With the flat of his sword, he slapped the hind-end of the nearest fool, who would run back the other way, too young and eager to fall upon the enemy spears that now erupted in a black forest of deadly spikes behind them. For honor's sake, and the bloodied gleam of battle-driven fervor in the young warrior's eye, the colt would impale himself in his earnest attempt to bring "just one more" enemy down.

"Our job is finished!" He shouted after the idiot, who had squealed in surprise at the sudden smack to his hindquarters. The instinct of the uma had taken over, and Shichiro watched with grim satisfaction as the horse galloped back toward their own protective lines, which were forging closer to them with each passing second.

Turning his attention to the next young fool, he saw his eldest son harrying the hard-headed before him on the other side of the rock-strewn valley that defined their field of battle. The boy was young, but made of sense. He would follow his lord's orders to the letter, and be named Seventh Son, Shichiro, one day. Young Kei had done his blood proud, bringing down three of the enemy with his arrows and one with his spear. Shichiro allowed himself a moment to grin at the thought---the strength of the Clans would be preserved for yet another generation…

A screaming cry behind him made him whirl. He bellowed as he saw the young warrior, who had dissolved from his larger horse form to that of the more humanoid youkai in trying to avoid the ogre's powerful fist. The ogre, grey-blue in color, stood twice the height of the man, and while the soldier was distracted by its left fist, the right swung for his head with a thorny club held tightly in its three-fingered claws.

_'Ichiro!'_

Lord Shichiro leapt as he saw his son's head caved in by the crushing blow. Bellowing his fury, his mind seethed with the anger of regret at the sudden loss of his second boy. He felt his legs lengthening as his hand dropped his useless sword to the ground. Clenched fists formed into powerful, deadly hooves as his body morphed into that of his true nature. The blood-rage was on him, and he screamed a livid challenge as he galloped toward his son's attacker.

The ogre cowered back, its dull reasoning stunned at the manic fury that sped toward him on four hooves. Leaping into the air, Shichiro twisted around so that his powerful hindquarters could swing in a deadly arc, crushing the ogre's face beneath their impact. The ogre staggered back, his roar of pain oddly whining in what was left of its mouth. Hot blood spurted across the horselord's back and legs as he fell roughly to the ground, a stray arrow of the enemy having caught him in the shoulder.

Ignoring the pain, he whirled on his forefeet, avoiding the slamming impact of a second thorny club sent clumsily to where he had stood just a breath before. Curling his lips back over his teeth in a snarl of rage, Shichiro challenged his next opponent, another blue-grey giant, who stood over its fallen brother.

The ogre swung with deadly malice, its dull gaze hot with rage. It bellowed its frustration as Shichiro easily danced aside, backing up for enough momentum to leap up to the giant's height and serve him as he had done the first. Ogre hide was tough; the only way to take one out was to damage the weaker extremities.

The ogre slashed at him again, the heavy club whooshing past the lord's laid-back ears with a motion that stirred the smaller hairs of his mane. It was much too close, but Shichiro could feel naught but triumph. "Ha! Your aim is as bad as your---"

His taunt was cut off as flames engulfed him. Screaming in rage and fear, Shichiro, Seventh Lord of the Horse Clans, reared as the white-hot flames erupted across his skin and back, swirling around the legs he tried to kick out against the fiery death that now consumed him. A triumphant roar arose behind him, and a rolling trumpet of imminent, inescapable doom.

_'Dragons!'_

For a moment, the lord stood there, a rearing statue of a horse enwreathed in dancing fire. His body was outlined by mocking flames, and rage-crimsoned eyes widened at the specter that screamed one last warning before suddenly crumpling in upon itself as the flames burned the heart out of the youkai to ash.

_ooOOooOOooOOoo_

Her crimson eyes showed nothing, her face a white, stoic mask. But the purple-blackened scar on her cheek seemed to pulse faintly, and the thoughts that seethed in the back of Koga's mind were awhirl with emotions. Anger, triumph, a poignancy of grim determination, and a small stab of icy terror that was gone so quickly he could not say if his wind-ridden mate had ever thought it. He cast her a sharp glance of concern, but she ignored him to stare fixedly on their goal---Naraku's lair.

The black mountains that ringed them in on all sides seemed to hold menace in their very shadow. The bite in the air was icy cold, but there was nary a breeze to ruffle the fur of his armor. Instead, the world seemed tensed, waiting, as if it held its very breath. Koga's ears twitched, and he thought he heard a small rumble in the far distance. Eyes narrowed, he scanned the rocky hills that hemmed them in, even this high on the front slope of a descending mountain's face.

And then they felt as if the very earth trembled. Something screamed faintly on the air, a mere whisper of sound lost in the distance. The ground beneath their feet seemed to heave and roll, and Koga turned to brace his mate, who might not have the strength to remain standing as the very bellows of the earth seemed to buck in protest to whatever disturbed them.

Kagura was fixed as a pillar of stone, however, and although he wrapped his claws around her slight shoulders, she paid him no heed. Bloody eyes narrowing, her lips thinned in distaste. "He would not be such a fool as to awaken them."

"What?" Koga snapped out with distraction as he glared at the less than graceful antics of his wolf-brothers, who did not fare as well as the wind youkai in the grumbling protest of the earth's shaking. Several of the four-legged brethren winced and circled around their sprawled youkai companions with whining unease.

"Naraku," Kagura said in a bitter whisper. "He has awakened the dragons."

Koga's mouth twisted into a smirk. "We can take care of them."

Kagura just looked at him. She did not need to voice the fear that now nipped across the back of her (and thus, his) mind. Koga fought the fear down, the rock of his arrogance leaving little room for doubt as to the final outcome of this long-awaited confrontation.

Blue eyes glinting with barely concealed anger, he motioned sharply with his head for his men---both eastern and northern---to get up. He tightened his grip on the wind lady's shoulders, in comfort or homage or vow, he did not know or care. It was time.

With a grim smile, he ordered, "We go."

_ooOOooOOoo_

_A/N: First update in over a year and I write yet _another _cliffy! I bet y'all could kill me right about now… (Fate)_


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